


Kaitan the Awesome

by DChan87



Series: Pōmaikaʻi Adventures [4]
Category: Original Work, Tarzan - All Media Types, Tarzan - Edgar Rice Burroughs
Genre: American Character, Battle, Bechdel Test Pass, Canadian Character, Established Relationship, F/M, Fantasy, Feral Behavior, Gen, Humor, Japanese-Australian Character, Jungle, Jungle Boy, Jungle Girl, Martial Arts, Nudity, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Polynesian, Rainforests, Tarzan References, Tribal, Winnipeg, Zombies, sorcery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-04-24 03:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 50,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4903834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DChan87/pseuds/DChan87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The past has come back to haunt Kaitan of the Greystoke Island jungle. An old adversary leads attacks against Greystokian villages and the research expedition. Kaitan must discover what the meaning of these attacks are, and if the adversary is working for someone who also happens to be bad news. Meanwhile, his aunt comes to Greystoke, wanting him to come back to Winnipeg and take control of the family business.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Kaitan of the Jungle stood atop a mighty tree, surveying the jungle that spread out on all sides around him on Greystoke Island. And the jungle was Kaitan’s domain.

Okay, that was a little dramatic and overblown, but it’s true.

And it was a nice day. The early-mid-morning sun was beating down on the lush green, providing excellent photosynthesis food for every single plant on the island, which itself is pretty big, approximately the same size as the Big Island of Hawaii. There aren’t very many other islands approximately the size of Greystoke, although that’s because there really AREN’T.

(Also, the size of the island tends to change, depending on the story, because while there is something of a canon/continuity, it does not extend to the size of the island.)

The island is covered by a lush green jungle and populated by a veritable mix of flora and fauna species. Most of the latter, in fact, almost all of them, save for the native fruit bat, could be considered invasive species, except they’d formed an entire balanced ecosystem, complete with equally-as-balanced food chains, that, if things went wrong, could potentially lead towards ecological disaster on the island.

And that’s why Kaitan, although his Teo tribe brethren also hunted, took it upon himself to help keep the balance of the jungle. And it was his home. The proud grin he wore as he stretched his body could not be contained.

He sat on a thick branch, surveying his territory and relaxed in the early-afternoon sun. He tapped his bare foot on the branch, listening to the breeze and the sounds of the other animals in the jungle. He trained his ear up above him. A monkey sat above him, calling out to its fellows before scurrying away. The Dude of the Jungle chuckled at the monkey’s antics. The monkey came back minutes later and ran down to Kaitan.

The monkey screeched. Kaitan answered back, using its very sounds. The monkey ran up to his shoulder and curled its tail about his neck before climbing back up the tree. Kaitan reached into his loincloth pouch, took out a nut and handed it to the monkey. The monkey took the nut and gobbled it up in a matter of seconds. Kaitan made some more ape-like sounds and the monkey seemed to smile before scurrying off.

The jungle gymnast/modern-day, real-life Tarzan successor stood up and stretched again. He jumped off the branch without hesitation and began swinging about the branches and vines.

He moved like an ape. One of the island apes happened to pass by. He learned from the apes, and he learned from this one, too. Though he didn’t have opposable thumbs on his feet, he had experience on his side. Gymnastics training was not necessary, as he moved like a gymnast and an ape combined, although the ape influence was more prominent.

While Tarzan, Korak and Mowgli once hated their jungle lives, Kaitan did not. Okay, maybe he was a little ashamed sometime in the past, but that was when he first met his future mate and the other modern outsiders. To be fair, having wild hair and being borderline bare-ass nude in nothing but a loincloth is an awkward first impression.

Other than that, given how the Jungle Dude had made his home here, he took to jumping along the branches with pride and power. Oh yes, he’s been compared to Tarzan, and he’s certainly embraced the comparison… at least without any potentially racist baggage The Big Guy already carries.

He was not a massive bodybuilder, like a Frank Frazetta art-piece; he was athletic and muscular, but smaller like a gymnast or a UFC welter/middleweight. A tan, caused by living in the jungle, and his First Nations heritage covered his skin. His face was slender and rounded, framing bright, slightly-chestnut-shaped brown eyes. And of course, he wore a loincloth. He’s a modern Tarzan. What do you expect?

His thin nose caught the whiff of something in the air. He sniffed around until he located the source of the scent. Now, he was in an even better mood, for a very good reason.

His mate Julie also prowled the jungle in a good mood.

It didn't take much to get the 23-year-old jungle girl into one, and today was no exception. It was plain as day just by the way she prowled through the thick brush and trees, while half-naked, and humming “Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah” to herself. Usually, she was in a good mood just because she happened to be living the jungle life on Greystoke. And that was the case today. She crawled and moved through the trees with little effort, and looking right at home among the trees. Which, by now, she was.

 The day itself certainly helped her good mood. It was nice, sunny, low-humidity, and somewhere in 80-degree range, a day that erased any regrets about giving up on her life back in California in exchange for living as a jungle, basically like some old pulp novel heroine. Then again, like the old saying went, don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it.

A cat—though nothing like a domestic cat, instead on about the size of a medium-sized dog and resembling a mixture between a domestic cat and a bobcat (with a tail, of course)—bounced out of the brush and rubbed its face up on Julie’s leg.

“Ginger!” Julie cooed a she knelt down to pet the friendly wild cat. It received her petting like a regular house cat, rubbing up against her and wanting her to scratch behind her ears. Julie wasn’t worried about rabies. She’d already been vaccinated even before she came to Greystoke, and against several other potentially dangerous diseases just to be safe (her arm hurt like a bitch for a week after her final shot, which was for meningitis). Also, some of the cats had already been vaccinated against rabies, as evidenced by the tag Ginger had on her ear.

“Who’s a good wild kitty?” Julie asked while she scratched the cat, who rubbed her fur against her bare, hairless legs.

What? It’s a jungle girl fantasy. I can do what I want.

The cat got tired of the attention and slinked off back into the brush, at which Julie brushed her legs off, hoping to get rid of some bugs that may have hopped off Ginger and onto her. There _was_ one bug, but it was harmless, anyway.

But living in the jungle’s not easy. In fact, it’s… kinda deadly. And dirty. In fact, some of the scars covering Julie’s kinda-tanned and freckled skin attested to this. She doesn’t know how many times she cut herself on a branch or some animal swiped her with their Nasty Claws, and she was kinda lucky they never bit her. Of course if she did, she didn’t have to worry about rabies, since not only was she vaccinated against it (just in case), it seemed as if, as far as some of the other palemen like her were aware. A few tests of the cats and bats on the island showed no signs of the nasty bug. And any animal that would be introduced to the island that was already overrun by invasive species that those animals would have to have been inoculated.

And it’s also… kinda dirty. In fact, you’d have to get used to living without a shower, or access to clean water (or just look hard for it). And at some point, you’d end up smelling like a mixture of sweat, dirt and animal dung. But, if there’s anything about humans, it’s that they’re adaptable and resourceful. And for Julie, you can take the girl out of the civilization, but you can’t take the civilization out of the jungle girl. And she’s found ways to get clean.

But don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it, and Julie’s tried it. And like mentioned earlier, she wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Also earlier, it was mentioned that her skin was tanned. This came from being part-Serbian, part-Finnish and with LEETLE bits of Spanish (Castillan and Catalan, to be exact), ethnic Jewish and whatever was left of the Native Tribes of SoCal, as seen in her sorta-chestnut-shaped eyes, helped by recessive genes. Her body was slender and toned, especially in the arms and stomach, which she proudly displayed. Her eyes were brown and her hair was long, brown and kinda disheveled. But it goes with the territory, and she kinda likes the look. Hey, she rocks the look. She also rocks the look with her “standard-issue” jungle girl outfit, an animal skin bikini and loincloth that covers her backside, so no butt shots. Oh, and she’s about average in the… chest… area. Having big “bongos” would probably hinder you in the wild.

And she can certainly rock the one-piece look, and she’s done it before. But with the way she looks, she might as well show herself off. And she does it for the women who don’t feel pretty, but wish they had a body like her. Not to mock them of course, but to let people know that it’s okay to show themselves off, especially when some asshole tells them to put the stomach and guns away.

She also had some jewelry you’d expect on a jungle girl; a shark-tooth necklace and a couple bracelets. But no earrings. And no make-up. Why she would need makeup in the wild, your guess is as good as the narrator’s. Though she IS beautiful, it sort of defeats the point of going into the wild to escape the pressures of civilization.

She did have some tattoos, though. Traditional Polynesian designs, sort of a hybrid of Samoan, Maori and Hawaiian designs coated her arm.

And yes, she was barefoot. Although, it might not be a good idea to show her soles, lest some sick foot fetishist get grossed out by—forget it, show those sick fucks just how dirty they are. A fallen log was in her way, so she lifted her foot, exposing how dirty her soles had gotten as she stepped over that log. Yeah, not a pretty sight. But she went barefoot for a multitude of reasons, the main reasons were for better grip on the trees and to get close to nature.

Her movements were cat and ape-like. She reached up, grabbed a branch and effortlessly pulled herself up onto the thick branch. She stayed squatted and carefully moved towards the edge. When she got there, she stood up to survey the forest. The jungle was quiet, although she expected that. The occasional bird or primate/ape call punctured the quiet every now and then, but these were irregular. She knelt on a branch and listened.

Primal instinct was starting to take over for her. You could see that in her eyes, which darted this way and that on regular intervals. A breeze blew through the jungle, which felt amazing on her mostly-bare skin, making her shudder and grin. She stood up, stretched and took in a deep breath of fresh jungle air. “I love this place,” she said to herself before squatting back down and turning back into a feral jungle girl, albeit with a human smile on her face.

She then proceeded to make her way down to the forest floor. However, she climbed down gradually, staying in the trees for as long as she felt like it, because she’s wild and free, and she’ll do whatever the fuck she wants!

But, she’d gotten distracted and almost slipped on the way down. But she grabbed a vine and swung through the trees until she landed in the one place she always wants to land. “Kaitan!” she cheered as he held her in a bridal carry.

“Swinging my way?” he asked.

She chuckled and wrapped her arms around his neck without taking her eyes off him and his playful smirk. “Oh, I was just hanging out,” she said. “By the way, what are you doing here?”

“I’m heading to the treehouse,” he said. “The tribe is going to the Pele village for the Island Games.”

“I FORGOT!” she screamed.

He put her down. She made it down the rest of the way before stopping just above the jungle floor. Moments later, he landed perfectly on the ground. She bit her lip as she watched, before she jumped down. But she landed wrong and in a crumpled mess. Nothing hurt, just her pride. 

He came up to her in his ape-like crouch. He grunted like an ape and dashed off on all fours. She smiled and got back up on all fours to follow him.

The guttural sounds Kaitan and his mate made would not sound out of place among the apes of Africa or Asia. That was also the case here, with the Greystokian apes. Then he bounded away, his movements a human facsimile of the movements of an ape. While it wasn't exact, he looked just like an ape running through the branches and brush. Julie followed behind, running like the hybrid of a cat and an ape.

Adherents of survivalism and rewilding could only dream to be like these two; wild beasts in human form, liberated, in their view, from the shackles of modern civilization (certainly, the author approaches this from a left-wing perspective, but rational and actually LIKES civilization). It's not hard to project a political viewpoint onto this, even the author thinks about that from time to time, and is pretty liber—SHOT

But we digress.

Their feet and hands made crunching noises in the fallen leaves that had solidified over countless years into mulch and soil. They made good time. Still, the observer could tell who the veteran was and who the comparative rookie was. Kaitan's movements were flawless, and he started to open a sizable lead on his mate. He noticed this when he turned back. So he ran up onto a massive tree root and barked at Julie.

She barked back and followed him up the root. Then he took her by the hand and led her up the tree until they reached a higher branch. She got a good look at his toned back and licked her chops. But he welcomed it when she glomped him from behind and covered him in kisses. Then he grabbed a vine, and, with her on his back, swung to the next tree branch.

Their path was easier now. The branches were all within an easy jumping distance from each other, so there was no more need for vines. Kaitan jumped first and Julie followed. They swung like apes/monkeys from the branches from tree to tree. Monkey bars are called that for a reason, not because lemurs like to grab a Budweiser at those things.

Bad analogy.

The savages descended down to the ground again and ran like animals to the clearing. Upon reaching it, they stood upright, looking like the famous (though inaccurate) drawing of evolution.

A treehouse sat in a tree in the middle of the clearing. The branches of the tree spread out to cover about 1/15th of the clearing, and were wide and strong enough to hold the treehouse. It was a two-story treehouse, with solar panels on the roof. However, a little nest-like feature was above the second story,  

Two deer grazed under the tree, hitched to two different posts with long lashes. The deer looked up as Julie approached it to pat and stroke the deer's muzzle/snout (whichever works). The deer nuzzled her in return. "Good deer," she cooed. "Who's a good steed? You are! Yes you are, yes you are!"

"You're really _fawning_ over that deer!" Kaitan quipped with a big grin. The California woman turned to him, raised her eyebrow a la Stephen Colbert, rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“I am going to PUN-ish you for that,” she said.

The Jungle Dude simply grinned again and watched his mate walk away back to the treehouse.

A rope ladder was attached to the porch. Julie pulled a grappling hook out of a pouch on her belt that she flung the ten feet up in the air to reach the rope ladder up there. With a strong yank, she pulled the ladder down to the ground. Kaitan secured the bottom of the ladder and watched as she climbed up the ladder first. Once she was up, she held onto the ladder as her Jungle Mate ascended the ladder. When he was up, she pulled up the ladder and tied it up.

The padding sound of Kaitan's permanently-bare feet walking away grabbed her attention and she rushed to stand up until she noticed he had stopped. He looked at her and she merely shrugged. He turned away and walked into the two-level treehouse. She followed.

The treehouse, which wasn't even the first place they lived in, was sparsely furnished, with just the necessities and a little more. There were no electronics aside from a refrigerator, lamp and Julie's laptop. The rooftop solar panels powered all of these appliances. Julie turned the lamp on to light up the room, brown tones and all. A large bookshelf sat on the far end of the room. It held scores of books ranging in topics and titles that ranged from "Survival for Complete Fucking Morons" to Cannery Row to Harry Potter.

"Kimi!" Julie announced to the occupant of their armchair/newest member of the household. Kimi Fujioka put down the Harry Potter book she was reading for just a second to wave at her “landlords”, for lack of a better term. The 16-year-old sansei/nisei Australian girl had escaped, by accident, from her abusive foster family from Melbourne, having been thrown overboard a cruise ship en route to Hawaii. Since then, she's been adopted by the Teo and was also well on her way to becoming a jungle-dweller like her hosts. She had messy black hair, brown eyes, was petite and had started to wear standard-issue jungle clothing, just in a more modest way. "Yes?" she asked.

"Get up, we're going out," said Julie.

"Where?"

"The Pele capital village!" Kaitan excitedly replied. "The Island Games start today!"

"Wot?" She cringed and wished she didn't sound so stereotypical just then.

"It's kinda like the Olympics," said Julie. "Or the Commonwealth Games. Actually, I think it's more like the Highland Games or something."

"It'll be fun!" said Kaitan. Kimi shrugged and jumped off the chair, her bare feet thudding on the wood.

Half an hour later, they descended to the ground, saddled up the deer and set off for the capital of Pele territory. Kaitan and Julie rode their own deer, and Kimi rode on Julie's deer.

They rode on a trail that wound its way through the thick brush and foliage. Julie mentioned this was a trail used by tribesmen for trade and non-so-peaceful uses. Kimi scoffed, but not because she was unimpressed. The images of warriors carrying nasty weapons and such running through the jungle made her shudder. She said that was the reason they held the games, just like Ancient Greece.

"Reminds me of the Ancient Olympics," she said.

Julie threw her head back and laughed. "I guess you can say that!" she said. "Hey Kaitan, have there been any wars since the games started?"

"Two or three," he said. "Hasn't been one in a few decades, though!"

"That's not very reassuring," said Kimi.

They eventually emerged from the jungle and onto the Southern Grassland. It stretched on in a wide, panoramic way, as far as the eyes could see, until they saw a pair of mountains and another part of the jungle in the distance. Besides that, the green stretched on, mostly uninterrupted. A few trees dotted the landscape and a large, climbable rock sat, about the distance of three-and-a-quarter American football fields away from them. Kimi's grip on Julie's utility belt tightened, prompting the Californian to gently remove the Australian's hand from it and place it on her quiver. She gave Kimi a reassuring smile. The Australian nodded and calmed down.

Kaitan lightly kicked the sides of his mount and it walked on. Julie followed shortly after.  "How long is it gonna take?" Kimi asked.

"A couple hours riding," Julie replied.

"The actual competition won't start until tomorrow," said Kaitan. "Tonight's the 'opening ceremony', if you will."

They rode the deer to the northwest in a brisk, steady and easy trot of a pace across the Southern Grassland. Both deer jogged side-by-side, pulling ahead of the other in short stretches.

The grassland passed them by until it stopped. Kimi, who’d been looking down at the ground, was pushed forward and her (face) cheeks made the smack of skin-on-skin contact with Julie’s shoulder blades. “Oi!” she said. “What—” she stopped when Julie pointed at what she was looking at.

Two figures stood off in the distance, watching them intently. But they were so far from them that they looked like dark-colored pegs against the green. All three of them stopped and looked at their watchers.

“That’s never a good sign,” said Kimi.

“She learns fast,” said Julie.

“Ignore them,” said Kaitan. “Even if they’ll probably bother us later.”

“Then maybe we shouldn’t ignore them,” said Julie. “They could be bad guys from some island dictator who wants to kidnap one of us. Or maybe they have a history with you.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” said Kaitan.

“Who did you piss off?” she laughed.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said. She opened her mouth to respond, but nothing got out or through. He kicked the sides of his deer and rode off. Julie huffed, shook her head and followed suit. It was all up to Kimi to warn their watchers. The message she gave them was a one-fingered salute that is well-known across many cultures, thus proving how interconnected we all are. The distant specks of dark dust or something like that turned away from them. They might not have seen it, though. They are kind of far away, but—SHOT

The distant specks disappeared beyond the horizon.

Unfortunately for Kaitan, you can’t make enemies and expect to avoid them all your life when you live on a jungle island. He was going to learn that the hard way.


	2. Opening Ceremony

The trio had to pass through another jungle. This one wasn’t as thick as their home in the Southern Jungles, and they took a trail used by the local tribes (one of which, the Teo, they were officially members of) for war and trade. **  
**

They were shortly thereafter back out of the jungle and into a rather large green savanna somewhere inland. The clear area spread out for many acres, almost as far as the eye can see, but this is still a rather large island, so it’s natural. One the left, they could see the mountain—it really wasn’t much of a mountain, perhaps only the height of Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi with a couple bluffs about the quarter of the way up that were still accessible by foot.

On the right was the jungle, which still covered much of the island, and ahead of them, they could see the village of the Pele.

The trail continued through the grassland, which as they could see, had been well-worn into the field itself and ran straight to the Pele village. The savanna itself was not completely flat, as there were some rolling hills and little dips in the terrain. The village itself was in one of these little dips, but as they could see, also partially rested on one of the hills. The grass surrounding the village varied in height; closest to the village, it was short, while getting at least an American football field distance away, the grass was long enough for someone to hide in it.

It took ten minutes for the trio to reach the main village of the Pele. And it seemed that the Pele were expecting them, as evidenced by the Pele warriors who greeted them in front of the village gate.

They weren’t the only ones. To their left, Teo tribespeople, even ones they did not recognize, were training for their competitions. Some Pele men were doing the same thing off to their right. Kaitan hailed the guard at the front of the gate and the now-removed fence that once surrounded the village. The guard hailed them back and stepped aside so they could enter. The Jungle Trio acknowledged him and entered the Village of the Pele.

The village was also bustling to the peak of excitement. Smoke from the cooking pits billowed and wafted, dispensing so many smells that they blended so well, they couldn’t make out an individual scent. There was also a lot of talking and singing coming from the villagers. Kimi couldn’t help herself when she reached out to touch a ceremonial feather staff. It felt soft and tingly. She quickly retracted her hand so the person making them wouldn’t suspect a thing. But, Julie smacked her leg. Oh, she must’ve noticed it.

“Karza! Huli! Kimi!” a smiling man wearing a blue-and-green ʻahu ʻula and mahiole strode up to them with his kahuna in tow. Kaitan didn’t dismount, but extended his hand to shake Pele Chief Kawa’s.

“It’s Kaitan now,” he said. “Pleasure to see you again, Chief Kawa.”

“About time!” Kawa replied. “And it is a pleasure to see you, too! I understand you will be competing in some of the competitions?”

“You’re competing?” Julie spat. “I wanna compete!”

“It’s not too late for you!” said Kawa. “The officials are still gathering competitors. Just pick a competition you want to enter!”

“Perfect,” said Julie. “Who else is gonna be here?”

“You invited your paleface friends,” said Kawa. “The survivors of the Paea have been reorganizing into a new confederation, and their first act is to compete. The inhabitants of the Village of the Exiled and Paradise Village have also been invited.”

“I can’t wait to see them,” Kaitan said. Julie had already trotted off on her deer steed to find a place to register for the competition. “By the way, we saw two figures watching us earlier. I can’t say for certain, but they MIGHT cause trouble.”

“I will have my warriors be ready,” said Kawa. “Thank you for warning me. But do you know what they looked like?”

Kaitan sighed as he leaned against the head of his steed and put his hand on the buck’s antler. “No,” he said. “They were distant specks on the horizon.”

Kawa sighed, but in resigned disappointment. “That won’t help at all,” he said. “Still, it’s better than nothing. Thank you for warning me, Kaitan. I’ll alert Manti.”

“Thank you, Chief,” Kaitan said. “Where should Julie and I stay?”

“There’s a tent for you and your party in the Teo camp,” said Kawa. “Just ask them where it is!”

“Thank you!” Kaitan replied as he kicked his deer steed’s side.

Julie had already found her way to the registration “booth”, if it could be called that. It was just some record-keeper seated in front of Chief Kawa’s hut. Julie dismounted and Kimi followed. The record-keeper noticed the shadow that crossed his line of sight and looked up at Julie. “Can I help you?” he asked.

“Is it too late to register?” Julie asked.

“Almost,” he said as he glanced over at the sundial next to him. “You may only register for one competition. Which do you want to sign up for?”

“Archery?” Julie asked.

The record-keeper hissed and so Julie already figured the answer wouldn’t be good. “Sorry,” he said. “The women’s archery competition is full.”

“Fuck,” Julie hissed. “Then how about the wrestling or fighting competition?”

“You’re in luck,” he said half-heartedly. “There’s one spot left.”

Julie whooped, cheered, pumped her fist and leaped in the air. “Sign me up,” she said when her emotional high sheepishly came down at the sight of tribespeople staring at her.  
  
“The seeding will be held tonight,” said the record-keeper, “Before the opening ritual.”  
  
“Got it!” said Julie.  
  
“Can I sign up for something?” Kimi asked as she pushed her way past Julie, who hurried to translate for her. But the record-keeper frowned at her instead. She got the message, needless to say. “Stupid wanker.”  
  
“Language,” said Julie. “Even if he is one.” So she led the Australian teen back to their steed.  
  
“Spear throwing,” the record-keeper sighed. “She can register for spear-throwing.” Both women pumped their fists and high-fived, much to the record-keeper’s unhappiness. He was all too eager to get rid of Kimi when she signed up.

Finding their tent was easier than they thought it would be. Okay, part of the reason was because Kawa led them to the tent. They shared it with a few other Teo visitors who’d already set their stuff up. They would sleep on the floor. The Jungle trio set up in the southeast corner–well, not the actual corner. Their area was a bit more towards the middle of tent by comparison to the corner. The tent was small, too. It may have only held about a total of ten people including the Jungle Trio.

After finding their sleeping place, they gathered with their fellow Teo tribesmen where they learned about the schedule of events. The first day was dedicated to a soccer-like game as well as the first round of the “wrestling” competition. Archery and spear-throwing preliminaries would also take place that day. There would also be tug o’ war, running, dancing, and a whole host of activities. Julie had to ask how long this whole thing would last, which is about a week.

After that, she and Kaitan went to the combat tournament seeding meeting, held in the village center. A chalkboard (shut up) had been set up, with the surly record-keeper holding two mango baskets in front of him. The men sat on the right and the women sat on the left. Or at least, that’s what it looked from the back. Whatever.

The surly record keeper went over the brackets. There were 16 fighters in the women’s bracket, 20 in the men’s, and four representatives of each tribe per bracket. Now that the author thinks about it, this would make for a good story, but we digress. However, there were no researchers or Paradise villagers in the women’s bracket and only one researcher and Paradise villager in the men’s bracket. It didn’t make Julie happy at all.

Even worse, Julie was drawn as the lowest seed in the women’s bracket. She looked at the woman who happened to be the top seed and sighed when she saw that she was like a Polynesian Ronda Rousey. Her opponent smiled at her smugly, and Julie snarled at her. She also mouthed some dirty words at her.

However, Kaitan was given the top seed, and for a reason that surprised Julie: He’s apparently the defending champion. Julie was both envious and proud of her mate at the same time. Envious that he got the easy road, proud that he was the defending champion.

And they were all surprised when they heard the conch shell blowing. Kawa panicked and rushed into the center of the village, urging all of them to go and join their respective groups. The confused tournament participants stood up and dissipated to go and find their respective tribes—even the one researcher who’d gotten there early. But because he was early, he was pretty much all alone. And that made him sad.

Until some of the other researchers drove up to the village, that is, with the Teo in tow, albeit on foot. They carried torches and waved lei’s made of flowers in their traditional colors of orange and yellow, while singing and chanting all the while. Chief Manti was in the lead, of course.

The other tribes arrived at the same time. The survivors of the once-mighty Paea Tribe arrived from the northeast. They didn’t have a leader, but the chants they sang were ones of unity and rebirth. They waved flowers and banners in their traditional colors of violet and gold. The Exiled came from the southeast. It was a gesture of peace and forgiveness to the wretched who have been cast out of their tribes, except for the actual criminals, who were NOT allowed to take part in the festivities. There’s a line that had to be crossed. And finally, the Paradise Villagers. The story of that is taking place in another, Julie-centered story, but they’re a group of cruise ship survivors.

The spectators of all five groups—the Teo, the Pele, the Paea, the Exiled, the Paradise Villagers and the researchers—walked calmly into the center of the village. There was a makeshift, but sturdy stage in the center of the village. The rest of the Pele villagers stood around in a circle surrounding the participants, who all lined up in five columns in front of the stage.That’s where they gathered to begin the opening ceremonies.

Manti followed Kawa onstage. Gina, the leader of the research team, also went onstage, with Tim in tow. Representatives of the Paea, Exiled and Paradisers also came up on stage. There, Kawa’s kahuna, named Puna, instructed them to hold their fists out. They did, and Puna bound them all together. “This shall be a symbol of peace and unity for the people of the Land of Water,” said Puna. “May the bonds of friendship, peace and unity never break!” He then took a ti leaf and blessed them all with it. Gina had to stop herself from giggling, because it was kind of ticklish.

Puna then cut the bond, but the representatives all kept their hands together and raised their hands in the air. Then, Kawa announced, “LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!!” The crowd roared. “But first… LUAU!”

The luau was basically just a big party, nothing too important. Everyone mingled, fraternized and sororitized, and the spirit of competition was kindled. They feasted on pork, chicken and all sorts of good foods, with coconut milk and water to wash it all down. Fire and hula dancers performed for the guests.

Julie tried to ignore her future opponent, but the feeling of a pair of eyes kind of reminded her of the opponent. She couldn’t help but turn around to see the Pele woman narrowing her eyes, smirk and take a bite out of a chicken leg before pointing at her. Julie gulped, but recomposed herself so the woman’s mind games wouldn’t affect her. So instead, she glared at the woman and ripped a piece of ham in two. The woman, despite just raising an eyebrow, looked away from the Jungle Girl.

“What was that?” her Teo friend Lilo asked.

“My opponent trying to play mind games,” said Julie.

“Forget her,” said Lilo.

Kaitan and Hilo, his friend and Manti’s second-in-command, sat off a bit to the side to munch on their grub. They didn’t talk much, but didn’t really need to. Kaitan glanced over to Hilo with a grin upon seeing Julie playing mind games with her opponent, and Hilo smiled back. “Which events did you enter?” Kaitan asked.

“The sling competition,” said Hilo. “And which opponent are you most worried about?”

“All of them,” Kaitan replied. “Although I’m sure I can handle them, no sweat.”

“And I am sure as well,” said Hilo. “Just don’t let it get to your head, monkey-boy.”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Everyone else calls you that,” said Hilo. “Come on, I was joking around!”

The Jungle Dude rolled his eyes and sipped from his coconut half. “I also hope you won’t make any lifelong enemies this time.”

“I don’t make enemies,” Kaitan insisted.

“Why are you lying?” Hilo asked. “Stop lying. And tell Huli about your enemies.”

“I think she already knows that I’m not the most popular person on the island,” said Kaitan. “I’m more worried about her enemies.

Hilo shook his head at the Jungle Dude’s intransigence. A shout grabbed his attention and he looked to see a pair of men getting into a fist fight.

A couple of fistfights did break out, not from alcohol, but from pure testosterone. And when those fights were over, the combatants looked more like they were going to be best friends instead of life-long enemies.

When they were done, the retired to their tent for the night. Julie read with Kaitan while Kimi taught a Teo girl, who’d come as a spectator, how to play patty-cake. It was a start, even for a 16-year-old.

“I wanna play patty-cake, too!” Julie called out.

“Can’t,” said Kimi. “We’re gonna play the slap game!”

Julie huffed, puffed and crossed her arms. “Well, fine! I don’t wanna play your stupid game anyway!” she shouted. “By the way, you DID tell Kawa about those guys we saw earlier, right?”

“Of course I did,” said Kaitan.

“You sure?” Julie asked.

“Kawa’s going to have extra guards ready just in case,” said Kaitan. “They won’t catch us off guard.”

“They’d better not,” said Julie.

The tent got quiet. Julie sighed and turned around to see the Pele Ronda Rousey coming her way. So she sat up and glared at the woman. “Yes?”

“I just wanted to say, good luck tomorrow,” the woman said. But Julie could detect the sarcasm and false sincerity in her tone. But,

“Thanks,” she said. “But I won’t need luck. You’ll need the luck.”

Having heard that, the tent went, “OOOOOOOH!”

But the Pele Ronda Rousey laughed derisively. “I don’t need luck, either,” she said. “Especially since I’m not some wannabe-wild paleface!”

Julie launched up and stared the woman down. “THIS wannabe-wild paleface doesn’t need to insult her opponents,” she said, “Because I’m actually CONFIDENT.”

That got her opponent’s goat. She leaned forward, but Julie stood her ground, giving her a menacing smile. The rest of the tent gathered around the two. Oh, if only they weren’t supposed to fight first! “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, I’d rather let my fists do the talking,” Julie replied. “I don’t need fake intimidation.”

“HA! Don’t cry if you lose,” the woman laughed.

“JULIE! You got her!” Kimi cheered.

“How do you want those words?” Julie asked. “Rare, medium, or well done?”

The woman growled and pushed Julie away before storming out of the tent. The rest of the tent cheered and gave Julie high fives until she gave the woman a double middle finger.

Kimi was in full fangirl mode by the time Julie sat back down next to Kaitan. “What was AMAZING!” she said. “What’d you say?”

“I told her talk is cheap,” said Julie.

“Hey, Kaitan?” Kimi asked.

“What? I agree with her,” said the Jungle Dude.

“Actually, I meant to ask if you were confident,” said Kimi.

The Jungle Dude grinned crookedly. “Of course I am,” he said with equal amounts of confidence as his words. “I’ve won this before, and I can do it again!”

“Are you sure?” Kimi asked.

“I am sure,” said Kaitan. “And I’m also sure the others are gonna be gunning for me.”

“And what if you lose?” Kimi asked.

“Then they’re better than me,” said Kaitan.

“Yeah, but you’re always a winner in my eye,” Julie said while she cuddled up with him and kissed his cheek. The Jungle Dude blushed.

And it was also during this get-together that Kawa remembered what Kaitan told him earlier. “I almost forgot,” he said. “Kaitan told me he saw two men watching him, Huli and Kimi. I’ve already told my warriors to be on the lookout for any intruders.”

“Are you sure you can trust him?” the Paea representative asked.

“I trust him whole-heartedly, and even if I did not, it is still best to be safe than sorry,” said Kawa. “Manti knows more about him than I do, and he would certainly do the same. Correct?”

“Correct,” said Manti. “Especially after how your people,” he looked at the representative from Paradise Village, “interrupted our sacred founders’ dance.”

“What did he just say?” she asked.

“It’s best if you don’t know,” said Tim.

“The logistics of security should not be an issue,” the Paea representative continued. “I am more than certain we will be able to stop an attack. Although, to be honest, I do not think there will be an issue.”

“The palefaces have a term for this situation,” said Manti. “Better to be safe than sorry.”

“You spend way too much time with the palefaces,” the Paea representative replied. “We should not be worried.”

“Your tribe was almost destroyed by one of their own,” said Manti. “Perhaps you should take threats seriously.”

“Enough!” Kawa said firmly. “Let us worry less about our peoples’ troubles and focus on the near future. We have an important event on our hands, and I, as the leader of the host tribe, am worried more about such future. Now please, let us enjoy ourselves.”

The partygoers agreed to that. And meanwhile, across the camp, Julie and Kaitan slept snuggled up for what they thought would be the first night of an exciting week.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning seemed to come sooner than expected. The Jungle Couple awoke to the sounds of people chatting and getting ready for the day’s events. They took a moment to get an idea of what was going on before they realized what it was. Julie immediately jumped out of the “bed” and ran outside to see the bustling activity taking place. And what that activity was caused her to gasp loud enough to wake half the tent up, including Kimi.

People were running around. They were setting up the pitch for the soccer/football/rugby-like game, the rings for the wrestling/combat competition, the targets for the archery, slingshot and spear-throwing competitions, and the track for the running competitions. They were all spread out so there wouldn’t be a ball falling in the middle of a fighting ring or a spear puncturing the ball right as it—SHOT

Okay, that was getting repetitive.

Kimi ran out to get a look at the scene and gasped as well. She just wasn’t as loud as Julie. The two watched the activity for a few short minutes until Julie remembered why she had gotten up. So she awoke Kaitan as well and took the rest of the trio over to the researchers’ camp site, where they cleaned themselves off and washed their hair.

And since we are not going to focus on their nakedness, even if Julie and Kaitan have absolutely no problems with being naked, since the act itself isn’t sexual, we won’t go into detail.

Julie shaved her legs and remarked that she needed to find some way to make this permanent, and so did Kimi (shave, that is). Kaitan also shaved his short fuzz. They even brushed their teeth. When that was done, Julie had her hair done in a bun by one of the scientists. She tested it a couple of times until she was confident that the hair would not slip out of the bun if it was pulled on. She smiled at the mirror and to Gina while giving her a thumbs-up.

They ate breakfast with a part of researchers and Teo tribesmen. It was a good, hearty breakfast with meat, fruit, bread, hash browns and yes, coffee. Julie spent the rest of the early morning sparring with Kaitan and later Gina. Kaitan also sparred. Kimi got a few tips on spear-throwing from one of the researchers. At the same time, 8 members of the research team practiced the soccer/rugby-like game that would be played today.

The game was played like this: there were two teams of 8 players, including the goalie. It was like soccer in that passing was only allowed by foot. However, you could carry the ball like in rugby. There were also two goals at either end of the field, but no uprights like in American football or rugby. The only way to score was to get the ball into the net. And it’s also a very physical game.

That’s why some of the fitter researchers, including the ones who had experience playing rugby and/or soccer were in the lineup. The practice wasn’t supposed to be very physical, but the researchers were already tackling. A few grass stains popped up on their nice shirts, cargo shorts and knees.

“Reminds me of high school,” John Tamou remarked as he came off the pitch in a sweaty, grass-stained mess. “Rugby matches were the best!”

“Oi! Juan!” Gina shouted to the doctor. “Get the deep-cleaner!”

A conch shell blew just a few moments later. A caravan of Pele tribespeople, led by the man blowing the conch shell, marched past the researchers, shouting something in his native language. Luckily, Tim was there to translate.

“He wants all competitors to report to their fields,” he said. “That includes your team.”

“Nice,” said George, one of the Americans on the researchers’ soccer/rugby team.

“Julie, are you going to cheer for us?” Gina asked.

“If you’re not playing my fellow Teo,” she said.

“No fair,” said Gina.

The first event of the day was the soccer/rugby game between the researchers and the Paradise Villagers. Because there were 6 teams, the bracket had to be adjusted. The researchers and Paradise Villagers played a play-in game for the right to play the Exiled, which would be a play-in game itself to get to the main bracket made up of the Pele (top seed), Teo and Paea remnants. It’s a bit convoluted, to be honest, but the bracket has to be completed somehow.

The crowd gathered at the soccer field-sized pitch. The researchers, all wearing the gold and green of Australia because it was the only one they could decide on, lined up with the Paradise Villagers to the cheers of the crowd. On the end, the researchers stood, waved banners and chanted like they were at a soccer game.

Unfortunately, things didn’t get off to a good start for the researchers. The Paradisers took advantage of the fatigue the researchers’ fatigue from their intense practice to take an early lead 4 seconds into the first half, which would last 15 minutes. Usually this game goes on longer than that, but the weeklong event meant that the games had to be shorter, kinda like rugby 7’s.

Back to the game itself.

After the first couple of scores in the first two minutes, John pulled his team together to get them to calm down and refocus. He went back into Lieutenant Mode for a couple minutes, delivering a stirring speech worthy of a cheesy sports movie that lit a fire under his team’s asses.

The researchers got the ball after they came out of the huddle and attacked the Paradisers’ net and zone. They resorted to a passing game that they quickly got the hang of. Their first goal came after figuring this passing game out and then sending long, wide crosses across the pitch that discombobulated the hapless Paradisers. It was Dr Juan who scored first for the researchers, a legal kick from point blank range. GOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!

Julie and the researchers roared. The team mobbed Juan while he blew kisses to the crowd. Juan is a <I> _futbol </I> _fan, of course. And if he didn’t have to wear a Socceroos shirt, he’d be wearing a Club Universidad (whose namesake and originator also happen to be his employer) de Chile shirt. He pumped his comrades up as he passed them by.

The metaphorical momentum pendulum swung to the researchers. They stormed back into the match to score 3 more times for a 4-2 lead. The Paradisers were in disarray. But they mounted one more goal on a counter push before time ran out and the researchers held on for a 5-3 win.

The researchers sang soccer chants throughout and upon the end of the match. The Greystokians weren’t familiar with soccer chants, and were quite understandably curious. So they talked to the researchers about these chants. This wasn’t a case of cultural imperialism, but cultural exchange.

Kiki unfortunately had to leave early because the spear-throwing competition would start just minutes after the end of the match. So she had to leave before said end of the match. But the researchers clearly had the match in the bag by then, so she wasn’t going to miss much.

She arrived to find some of the competitors already warming up. She gasped, screeched and ran up to grab a spear. However, it happened to belong to a different competitor. And he was pretty cross with her behavior. A translator would have been nice, but his tone and facial expressions spoke loudly enough. So she backed away.

Then, she turned around and an event official nonchalantly handed a spear to her without so much as a sideways glance. “Thanks, mate,” she mumbled.

She took some time to practice her technique. But she had to wait until Julie arrived to help translate for her. And that was the worst part, because she didn’t know the order in which she was going to be throwing in. It was certainly possible she would be first, or last, or somewhere in between, and she would never single clue.

“Sorry I’m late!” Julie rushed her side her chest heaving as she doubled over to catch your breath.

“Where were you?” Kimi asked.

“I got caught up in the excitement after the game,” she said. “I guess I just… Got distracted!”

“Could you  _please_ help me out?” Kimi asked.

“Absolutely!” Julie replied. “Just keep practicing until you hear the conch shell.”

The conch shell blew the moment after she said that. “Get going,” Julie urged, pushing her towards the competition area and following right behind.

“Listen up!” The official announced. “I will announce the running order!” He started to list the competitors. Kimi strained to listen for her name, but it didn’t come, up at least not immediately. Then, she heard him announced her name, but that was it.

“What?” She asked

“You are a competitor number seven,” said Julie.

“Is that really what he said?” She asked.

“Yeah!” Julie confirmed.

So she had to wait while the other competitors took their turns throwing their spears. And they were good. Kimi gulped hard, and ground her teeth as each competitor stepped up and threw their spears so far that she momentarily lost sight of teaching and be single one of them. “Fuck,” she hissed. Even the man who assumed she had tried to steal his spear had a good throw. He walked past her, glaring at her all the while.

“Stay calm,” Julie said, rubbing her shoulders. “You can do this. I believe in you, OK?” Kimmy nodded and smiled. Julie smiled back. She heard her name being called and step forward. She raised her spear to signal that she was ready.

She walked up to the spot yet official pointed to, and turned around to look at Julie once more. The Californian gave her a thumbs up. The Japanese-Australian girl sighed and readied herself. She held the spear with quivering hands and a steely expression on her face. She ran forward, stopped, and threw the spear. It sailed on a wobbly arc before landing among a group of them. She waited and watched for the official to measure the distance, her stomach tight with fear. The official’s subsequent announcement and Julie’s silence on the subject didn’t help matters much.

It wasn’t until the final nine competitors had gone that Kimi learned her fate. The first hint that it was good news was when after hearing the official’s announcement, Julie tightly hugged the teenager while squealing. “YOU MADE IT TO THE NEXT ROUND!!!” she screamed.

Kimi’s happy shrieks/screams mixed with Julie’s. They did draw other people’s attention, but only because it’s very hard to ignore the shrieks of two very excited young women.

But Julie had to leave before the second round could begin. The whole event was being run on a tight schedule that left the competitors with some, but not a whole lot of, wiggle room to visit other events, but had to be at their competition on time or face disqualification. And Julie was in the first bout of the women’s tournament.

She simply patted Kimi’s shoulder and smiled confidently before turning around to jog to the ring. Kimi should have been offended, but wasn’t. She smiled back and turned towards her competition. However, the dispersing competitors were enough to tell her that she could go and watch Julie’s bout.

Julie almost bumped into some runners training for the equivalent of the 100-meter dash which wouldn’t take place for a couple more days. But she made it just in time. A crowd had already gathered at the spot of her bout with the Pele fighter.

She and the ref waited in the middle of the ring. Kaitan was also waiting for her. He held the brown tape-like stuff to her, that she took. She kissed his cheek. Then she used the tape to wrap up her ankles and knuckles. She threw a couple of practice punches and kicks while her opponent posed for some of the men and girls. Julie had to admit, in her bicurious mind, that the woman was pretty attractive. She would make a good girlfriend if she wasn’t already in love and a committed relationship with Kaitan. Assuming the woman was A) attracted to women, or B) not a shameless flirt with a hard time forming relationships.

“Miss Huli!” the referee called. “Are you ready?”

“Yes!” she said as she walked into the ring with the woman waiting for her, the two faced off and touched their fists together. They faced the three judge and bowed. Julie didn’t recognize any of them. But she recognized that was a good thing; an impartial judges panel is fair.

“Don’t cry,” said her opponent. “Your lover wouldn’t like it. Perhaps I could be a better lover to him than you ever would be.” That pretty much established she wasn’t into women, at the very least.

“Whatever,” Julie said before retreating to her corner. She took a gulp of coconut water that Kame handed to her and waited until the referee announced it was the time to start. The. She walked up to her opponent and put her dukes up.

Her opponent swung first. Julie jumped out of the way and countered. Her opponent blocked her punch and kicked at her. It was lousy form and Julie knew it. She readied her fist and punched the woman right dead in the jaw, causing her to stumble backwards.

“Why does she always wear that?” Iolana the Pele crone asked about Julie’s “standard-issue” animal skin bikini-like outfit. “Is it some paleman eccentricity?”

“Well, she wants to be wild like her mate,” said Kame.

“Yes, but I still wonder why even HE wears that loincloth,” Iolana replied. “He just looks so silly!”

“They wear those clothes because not only does it keep them anchored to their humanity, but also because popular characters in their world wear similar outfits,” said Kame.

“Well, now, that IS eccentric,” said Iolana.

“Come on!” Julie laughed as she danced around her opponent. She waited until she stood back up, then attacked, throwing a flurry of punches at her. Her opponent kept her arms together in front of her face to guard from Julie’s strikes. And when she was ready, she counterattacked.

The first thing she did was punch Julie’s chin. Julie was stunned, but neither concussed, nor in pain. Then, her opponent struck her other cheek and her chest. She bent Julie over her knee and flipped her face-first into the dirt.

The Californian coughed up some of the dirt as she stood up. The ref awarded her opponent a point. Julie growled. The woman grinned and flexed her muscles, both to mock Julie and to attract Kaitan. But Kai stood still with arms crossed and Julie wasn’t impressed. She put her dukes back up.

The opponent, who has been compared to Ronda Rousey, attacked. But Julie held her ground and counterattacked the moment her opponent lunged at her.

She unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks at the woman, who will no longer be compared to Ronda Rousey, but to Bethe Correia. Julie’s assault quickly overwhelmed the woman. E crowd stood, cheered and chanted as Julie wound up her fist and delivered the final blow to her opponent’s jaw. She went down, still awake, but dazed and confused. The ref stepped in and separated them. Julie flexed her muscles to the roaring crowd and then turned to the woman glaring at her. “Don’t cry,” she said. Guess who the real Ronda Rousey equivalent is.

Kimi arrived just in time to see the final blow and was probably the loudest out of the crowd. Kaitan wasn’t, but he didn’t have to be. And if you’re getting off to two women fighting, you’re sicker than The Joker.

Julie’s victory announcement was a mere formality. The crowd knew who the winner was. So when it was announced the judges awarded Julie the victory, there was no doubt, and the crowd let them know with a loud, passionate roar. And if you’d expect the opponent to be a sore loser, forget it. She shook hands with Julie, admitting she was beaten by a better fighter.

After shaking her opponent’s hand, Julie rushed over to Kaitan and glomped him. He twirled his laughing girlfriend around before putting her down.

Several more events took place that day. Most of them were preliminaries. Hilo competed in the sling preliminaries, placing a respectable fourth. He was vaguely disappointed at his position, but satisfied at making the final. He and Kai shared a wordless fist-bump/secret handshake.

It wasn’t until sometime in the afternoon that the men’s wrestling… fighting… whatever… tournament first round was set to begin. It used to be the main event for years, before officials realized that they needed to promote every other event, so the idea of a “main event” was dropped. Whatever, it’s still very popular.

The fans started to gather at least half an hour before the bout was scheduled to start. They circled the ring (ba dum, tsh!), gathering about 4-10-ish deep. But Julie, Kimi and Lilo managed to squeeze their way through the crowd until they reached the front. Julie wiped some of the sweat that wasn’t hers off her skin before sitting down. She wiggled in anticipation, waiting for the match to start. She didn’t have to wait very long.

The two competitors—Kaitan and his Paea opponent—followed the referee into the ring amidst the cheers and applause of the crowd. There was little, if any, formality though, as all the announcer did was announce the two face-to-face fighters. “This contest is set for three rounds!” He announced. “Introducing first, from the Teo Tribe, he is the Jungle Dude, and the reigning Champion, KAITAN!!!” Kai raised his arms. “And his opponent, a member of the Paea Remnant, HIMO!!!!!” Himo also raised his arms. The ref stepped forward and did his usual spiel before backing away.

“FIGHT!!!” He shouted. The fighters tapped fists and were underway.

Himo struck first, throwing three straight punches and driving Kaitan backwards. The Jungle Dude held his arms up to block his opponent’s strikes before countering with a swift jab to the chin. Himo, who was as tall, and weighed about the same 150-something pounds as Kai, blocked his attacks. Kaitan kicked at him, but the Paea tribesman blocked that, too.

Then they circled each other, waiting for the other combatant to make the next move. They both faked and feigned at the same times, but neither took the bait. Himo tried to feint. Suddenly, he struck Kaitan’s midsection, drawing a groan as the Jungle Dude doubled over, also revealing Julie’s infuriated tantrum. Just as suddenly, Kaitan lunged at Himo, wrapped his arms around his midsection and brought him down to the dirt.

The two began to grapple and wrestle in such a way that they almost made Julie’s inner yaoi fangirl come out. It didn’t help that both combatants were wearing nothing but loincloths.

But it was still your average grappling/wrestling. Kaitan managed to get Himo into an armbar. The crowd’s noise gathered and grew louder as this continued. But Himo didn’t so much as ask for help. Before Kai knew it, his opponent stood up and lifted him up.

He then turned the tables on Kai, dragging him down and pinning him to the dirt-covered ring.

“GET UP!” Julie shouted, standing up as well. “COME ON, KAI!”

But Himo had Kai right where he wanted him. He flipped the Jungle Dude over. The referee shouted, pointing to him as he punched at Kai. The Jungle Dude kicked him off and got back up.

Before Himo knew it, Kaitan ran forward, lifted his right leg as if he were about to kick, then threw a right hook with his well, right hand. The punch connected, and Himo stumbled backwards amidst the roar of the crowd. Kai grinned confidently. “Ready to give up?” he taunted.

“In your dreams!” Himo replied. He threw a haymaker at Kaitan that, while not concussing him, surprised the Jungle Dude. Himo lunged at him, grappling Kaitan, who’d regained his composure a little late to notice that he was in a half Nelson being dragged to the ground.

But he fought back. He elbowed Himo’s gut a couple times before his opponent had him in a chokehold. But, Kaitan managed to get his hand under the chokehold. And even though he strained, he had Himo right where he had him.

Then the arrow landed between his feet.

Both competitors stopped. At first, they thought one of the archery competitors accidentally aimed for the fighting ring.

Then they saw a horde of people cresting the western hill bearing down on the village and the Island Games.


	4. The Attack

Fear, terror and panic gripped the spectators. A collective scream erupted from them, turning into a human cattle stampede for about a second as the wave of attackers bore down on the games and the Pele village.

The Pele warriors immediately sprang into action. The ones closest to the first wave of attackers scrambled to their feet and met the attackers head-on. First, the ones at the front of the front through their spears and slung some rocks at the enemies. Said enemies knocked the spears away, and were barely fazed by the rocks. The warriors who’d thrown their spears fell back to allow the ones who hadn’t to form up and point the tips of their spears at the enemy.

The two sides mixed, turning into a brutal tribal battle. The first wave of attackers ran into the phalanx, impaling themselves on the spears. The Pele pushed from behind, moving the forward line, well, forward, to shove the attackers back. They shoved the attackers back and drove their spears, some of the shafts lined with shark’s teeth, into the enemy.

“GET THE SPECTATORS TO SAFETY!” Chief Kawa ordered. “THE REST OF YOU, GATHER YOUR WEAPONS AND FORM UP!”

“TEO WARRIORS, ARM YOURSELVES!” Manti also ordered. “HULI! Get your friends to safety first, and then come rejoin us!”

“Yes, Chief Manti!” she replied. “Everyone, let’s get out of here!”

Himo let Kai go and picked a spear up before charging into the fray. Kaitan didn’t take much longer to do the same, following Kawa into a battle formation. “JULIE! GET KIMI TO SAFETY!” he shouted.

“ROGER!” she replied before taking Kimi by the wrist.

“HEY!” was all Kimi could spit out.

She and some of the warriors gathered the spectators and then urgently, but calmly ushered them as far from the melee as possible. The warriors kept pushing, transitioning from the  _Kahalui_  crescent-shaped formation into the  _Pū‘ulu Kaua_ wedge formation, splitting the enemy’s forces in two. They drove them back far enough so they could throw their spears. Then, at the command of one of the officers, they charged.

The two armies clashed. It was a bloody, brutal battle of hand-to-hand combat. The defenders pushed against the attackers, mixing even more. In the midst of all this, Hilo led Kaitan through the melee until they reached the front lines, where they joined up with their comrades. They immediately got to work fighting the enemy. Hilo clubbed the ones closest to him, bashing their eyesockets. Kaitan fought with a foot-long  _leiomano_ , a shark-tooth club, that, let’s just say, HURTS.

The mixing got deeper and deeper as enemy warriors moved inwards. Julie and Kimi turned around so they could see the Teo and Pele warriors being pushed backwards towards the walls of the village from their vantage point, which only made them want to go in sooner, so it wasn’t just Kimi. But Julie held her back.

As the main line got closer to the village, they spread out, allowing the enemy warriors to move deeper in.

Hilo gathered some of his warriors. They fell back, regrouped and formed back up as more of the enemies closed in on the Pele village. He shouted, and the Teo and Pele warriors charged to counterattack. They pushed. The enemies drew back.

“HULI!” Manti was looking for her and finally caught back up with her at the top of the western hill near the village. She stopped and let Kimi go. The Australian girl rubbed her aching wrist. “Have your friends provide fire-stick covering from here. I will gather some of my archers and they will also provide cover. You come with me!”

“Yes, my Chief!” she said. She turned to Kimi. “Tell the researchers Manti wants them to provide covering fire from up here. I’m help him fight.”

“Got it!” Kimi nodded and ran off to inform the researchers. Julie raced over to her antsy deer mount. After calming it down, she took her sword and shield, bound her fists and wrapped a headband around her forehead. Then she ran to join her chief.

The enemies were starting to overwhelm the Pele and Teo front lines. They pushed them back again, forcing them to regroup in front of the village. Hilo held the warriors still, trying to keep them from losing their cool. The enemies faced them from across a 10-foot gap, allowing them to see their enemies for the first time. Their expressionless visages sent chills through the warriors. Kaitan shrank backwards, licked his lips and kept his club up with quaking hands. A lot of them were wearing a junglepunk Mad Max kind of armor with animal skulls for helmets. Oh, the defenders had similar armor.

One of the enemies, an apparent leader, pointed at Kaitan. He did not have an expressionless visage, and his apparent disdain with the Jungle Dude grabbed Hilo’s attention. The Jungle Dude innocently pointed at himself, and his expression made Hilo roll his eyes.

“KAITAN!” the leader shouted, still pointing his club at the Jungle Dude.

“Me?”

“Do not play innocent with me,” the man said.

“Do you know him?” Hilo asked.

“He kinda looks familiar,” said Kaitan. “Have I seen you before?”

“Indeed you have,” said the man. “Remember me? My name is Pauahi! Does that jog your memory of four years ago?”

Kaitan thought and then shook his head. The leader, Pauahi, rolled his eyes, growled and whacked the ground.

The other Teo and Pele warriors hid off to the side. “Now’s our chance!” Manti ordered. He stood and shouted, “LET’S GOOOOO!” The other warriors and Julie stood, drew their weapons and charged the enemy wedge while screaming—nay, ROARING—at the top of their lungs, their faces contorted in battle rage. The enemy had no idea what hit them. The warriors crashed into the side of the enemy wedge where they started pushing against them.

Julie drew her sword, kept her shield on her left arm and collided with an enemy. Her foe was surprised and shocked at first, being easily pushed back against the wedge of his comrades, but once Julie brought her sword down on him, he blocked her attack. But he could not stop her. And once she got in his face, she stuck her tongue out and made the same bulging eye face as her Teo comrades, scaring the man before plunging her sword into his chest.

At the same time, a storm of arrows rained down upon the enemy’s back lines. Some of the enemies also fell as if hit by some invisible force. That force happened to be bullets from the researchers’ rifles.

“LET’S GO!” Kawa ordered his men. They stormed the enemies to push them backwards, away from the village.

Kaitan went into full battle fury, thrashing the enemies and roaring like the proud savage he was. They were no match for the young Jungle Dude, despite his small size, but he had an intense and extensive battle experience. It didn’t match Manti or Kawa’s, but this is what you get when you turn into the real-life equivalent of Tarzan. He cut his enemies down, lacerating them with his shark tooth club and finishing them off with the marlin nose knife jutting out of the bottom. He fought next to Hilo, who was also caught up in the frenzy and chaos of battle, clubbing his enemies and breaking their—OOH! That’s gotta hurt. We won’t get too explicit, but trust us when we say it’s brutal.

But Kaitan was looking for the guy who called him out. And he didn’t have to look far, because HE called Kaitan out. It wasn’t by name, but Kaitan heard someone shouting from behind him and turned around in time to see Pauahi swinging his own  _leiomano_  in his face. He blocked and parried the attack just in time. He roared like an ape and charged him, swinging the  _leiomano_ in the leader’s face. It turned into something resembling a sword fight, given how both fighters’ weapons were almost as long as swords. And they were so close to each other that their sweat from their exertion and the heat caused by close-quarter combat with hundreds of others, landed on each other’s’ skin.

But Kaitan managed to break through. He grappled the enemy, kneed him in the gut, lifted him up and slammed him to the ground. He raised his  _leiomano_ above his head to finish the job, but Pauahi kicked his shin, causing him to go down. But Kaitan wouldn’t stay down and when Pauahi got back up, Kaitan tackled/speared him like one of the Blue Bombers, or Roman Reigns, if you’re into that.

The two wrestled on the ground while warriors stepped and fell all around them. Kaitan was surprised that, while he let his savage side out, Pauahi fought much more viciously. He could see it in his eyes; he was angry. With clenched teeth, Pauahi lifted Kaitan up and slammed him into a soft spot of earth. But it was enough to knock the wind out of Kaitan. He lay there in a daze as Pauahi prepared to finish him off.

His mate was also caught up in the heat of battle. She hacked and slashed at her enemies, driven by the same savage, primal, wild and feral fury as him. Drops of red splattered off her blade. The jungle Mad Max armor was strong, but it only took a few whacks and stabs with her sword to cut them down. She just bashed them with her shield and then cut off—

She ducked to avoid the oncoming enemy and the club he swung at her head. He stumbled to regain himself and didn’t notice her coming up to him, twirling her sword. There wasn’t much the guy could do to save himself. The next thing she knew, she had to raise her shield up as a shadow crossed into her line of sight. The ‘THUMP’ loudly echoed in her ear. He forearm hurt like hell. But she stayed up and countered. She reached out with her sword, but didn’t feel anything. She moved her shield. The enemy swung his club at her. She blocked it and then kicked him in the stomach.

At that moment, Julie felt something wrong. She spun around, with her messy, long brown hair flapping around, to see someone raising their weapon up to Kaitan. She roared in rage and charged the enemy, brandishing her sword at him.

Pauahi could hear her savage roar and looked up to see a dirt-covered paleface woman brandishing a metal weapon, bearing down on him. He looked up long enough for Kaitan to recover and knock him down. The Jungle Couple brought their respective weapons down upon him, but he rolled out of the way just in time.

“Later, Kaitan!” he said as he backed away.

“COME BACK, COWARD!!!”

But Pauahi’s smile sent shivers down his spine. “Not cowardice.” He turned and shouted to the enemies.

They immediately began to withdraw. But not before a few of them broke through, either going through or around the lines of the defenders. They were met with arrows, spears, rocks and bullets. They grabbed men, either dead, wounded, or neither, women and children. They carried them off. They kept going, up towards the hill. But once again, researcher bullets stopped them dead in their paths. The ones who fell were gathered up by their “comrades” and carried off.

Gina took off her shirt so she could be in her liberating tank top and kept shooting. She ushered Kimi into a truck for her own safety. Kimi didn’t argue, instead waiting with her head down and her ears covered. Then the shooting stopped. Muffled hooting and hollering told her all she needed to know: that the attackers had been turned back.

The rest of the attackers also turned back, but not without their prisoners. The defenders fought back and managed to rescue a few, perhaps the majority of the prisoners. The dead, however, were beyond their help. The attackers were gone after 10 minutes.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:

The battle had been over for an hour. A freshly-arrived team from Doctors Without Borders set up a field hospital after being helicoptered to the scene. Quite the welcome.

Dead and wounded that had not been carried off by the attackers were carried off, either to be disposed of, or carried to the MSF tents to be treated. It certainly wasn’t a pretty sight, especially as Manti, Kawa and their respective kahunas saw as they toured.

The battlefield reeked of death. Kawa even had to spit several times as if he could taste the stench. They had to be careful not to tread on wounded, dying or dead. At one point they stopped and all looked at each other. “What a mess,” said Kawa. “And we usually do so well.”

“I am glad that Kaitan warned us,” said Manti. “But…” he sighed. He turned around at the sight of one of his village elders, Hana, coming towards him.

“I wonder whose fault this is,” she hissed. “Kaitan?”

“Again, quick to blame the paleface,” he whispered. “It was he who warned us,” said Manti. “You should be thanking him.”

She laughed. “Rumor has it their leader knew who he was,” she said.

“And how do you know that?” Kawa asked.

“Rumor spread fast,” said Hana. “Ask some of the warriors. They saw first-hand!”

“What is your point, Hana?” Kame accused. “That Kaitan is to blame?”

“I never insinuated that,” she replied while fiddling with a spear stuck inside Paea warrior’s chest.

“You did not have to,” Manti said in a low and threatening voice. “I have no need for your paranoia-sowing filth right now.”

“Did you hear what the leader’s name was?” Kawa asked.

“Why should I tell you?” she asked.

“Because it would help us a great deal, especially if you do not want to be seen as a secretive, no-good witch who kept vital information from tribal leaders, just because you have an agenda against one of our own,” said Kawa. And to be sure of it, he gestured to one of his lieutenants to restrain Hana and point the end of a spear to her neck.

“You would not dare,” she glared.

“Do not think I won’t let him,” said Manti. “Now, what have you heard? What is his name?”

“Are you really that desperate?” she asked.

“Just tell us,” said Manti.

“Pauahi,” she spat. “That is what I heard.”

“Hilo!” Manti called. “Where is he?”

“Being treated by the outsider healers,” said Kawa’s lieutenant.

“Either fetch him or ask what the name of the enemy’s leader was,” said Kawa. “Either or.”

“Yes, my Chief!” the lieutenant barked before letting Hana go.

“The Games are RUINED,” said Hana.

“And they must be called off,” said Kawa. His expression, of course, was downtrodden and sad. “And this was looking like it would be our most successful in decades.”

Kame sighed through his nose and closed his eyes. “Then we must inform everyone that they are to leave,” he said.

“It’s amazing what adrenaline can do—don’t move, Julie!” Juan hissed as he stitched up a wound on the Jungle Woman’s arm that she had apparently forgotten about.

“It hurts!” she hissed.

“Then stop moving!”

She grumbled and laid her chin on her hand. She saw Kaitan seated off to the side, apparently deep in thought or something like that. He had his back turned to her, so that didn’t help at all. But, his posture and, from the looks of things, body language, spoke volumes. She came to the conclusion that he really was deep in thought, but about what?

“There we go!” Juan said. “See what happens when you stay still?”

“Thanks,” she said before she stood up and left the tent. She walked up next to him and sat down. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he replied.

“What’s up?”

“Thinking.”

“About what?”

“I can’t get anything past you, can I?” he laughed.

“Nope,” she said. “Who was that guy you were fighting?”

“He said his name was Pauahi,” said Kaitan. “He said he knew me. I didn’t recognize him.”

“Jeesh,” said Julie. “Another enemy?”

“I hope not,” he said. “I don’t even know what I did to him.”

“Can we stop pretending that you don’t have enemies for a second?” she asked.

“I’m not pretending,” he said. “I just don’t remember him!”

“A likely story,” she muttered while pulling her knees up to her chest. She kept looking at him. He’d turn his eyes towards her every now and then to see if she wasn’t looking anymore. She was.

“This—this was a hit-and-run attack,” he said. “Bandits use that tactic. Maybe they were bandits.”

“Gee, when did you become a military tactician?” Julie asked. “And I wonder what this has to do with that guy who knew your name?”

“Um—”

“You know, this is the same shit you tried with those stupid haunted ruins,” she stuck his finger into his cheek. “TALK.”

He sighed. “I honestly don’t remember,” he said. “I thought I might’ve remembered him from somewhere, but that’s what’s so hard.“

"I guess he wasn’t a friend of yours,” said Julie. “Maybe he was an enemy?”

“Where are you going with this?”

“Stop making enemies?”

“What if I don’t know what I did to him?”

“What do you remember about him?”

“Just his name,” said Kai. “I might have known someone named Pauahi a few years ago. It’s not an uncommon name around here. See that guy walking past us? His name’s Pauahi. HEY! Pauahi!”

“Hello!” he said.

His mate looked at him, took her headband off and leaned back, muttering something about how badly she wanted to get back to the woods. Or maybe she needed alcohol. But she was also a little frustrated. Even when a pair of MSF doctors walked past, talking about some annoying lady on their ship, she wasn’t happy. “This should’ve been fun,” she said.

“Yeah,” said Kaitan. “At least the last one was a big success. You wanna know how I won the last tournament?”

“How?” she asked.

“I was fighting this guy named Pauahi, and—” he froze. She froze too, but she didn’t look surprised, just sarcastically intrigued, in a way.

“Go ooooon!” she urged.

“You don’t need to do that,” he said. “I know who he might be, so I’ll have to talk to Manti.”

Kaitan stood up without a second thought and ran off. “Well, that’s no help,” she said. An animal skull that one of the attackers dropped caught her attention. And now that Kaitan was gone, a mischievous gleam glinted in her eye, along with a just-as-mischievous grin.

Kai, meanwhile, didn’t have to look far to find the Chiefs. He just needed a couple questions for the right person and a couple of minutes to find them gathered in the Kawa’s hut looking over old Island Games records. He even cast a long enough shadow for them to notice him. That, and Kawa was facing the entrance.

“Kaitan!” Manti exclaimed. “What do you need?”

“I know the name of the man who led the attack,” he said as he entered the hut. “His name was–”

“Pauahi? Hana told us the rumor.”

“Yes, that’s right,” said the Jungle Dude. “I remember fighting someone by that same name in the wrestling final four years ago.”

Kawa and his kahuna didn’t need anything else. Sounds of paper echoed in the hut until Kawa and his kahuna found just what they were looking for. “This is it!” said Kawa. “Kaitan defeated a combatant by that very same name. And… It seems he angered him enough that…”

“We’re you even there, Kawa?” Kame enquired.

“No,” said Kawa. “All it says is that the man was exiled.”

“What tribe was he?” Manti asked.

“Paea,” said Kawa. “No wonder I did not recognize him.”

“Is there anything else?” Kai asked.

“No,” said Manti. “Head home. The Games will be postponed until further notice while this crisis is sorted out. In the meantime, we will also need to find a way to retrieve our fellow tribespeople who were kidnapped.”

Kaitan bowed and turned to leave. But he kicked the dirt, stubbing his big bare toe in the process.

Several minutes later, he found Julie wearing a deer skull on her head and looking in a mirror Gina was holding up and Kimi looked on from behind the mirror. “Tell me, does it work?” she asked.

“I think so,” said Gina. “Shake your head, does it move?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s staying on,” she said.

“I think that’s good,” said Kimi. “Right, Gina?”

“Should be,” Gina answered. “Keep trying.”

She lifted it off and back on. She did this repeatedly until she caught Kaitan out of the corner of her eye. “So?”

“He was someone I fought in the last wrestling tournament,” he said.

“Who?”

“The leader of the fuckers who attacked,” said Julie. “What else?”

“Kawa’s postponing the Games,” he said with dejection in his voice.

“Wait, what!?” Gina sputtered.

“Did you see the carnage?” Julie replied. “It’s not like this can go on after a brutal attack!”

“But the Olympics have gone on!” Gina objected.

“This isn’t the Olympics!” Julie replied. “Believe me, Gina, I’m mad too, but if I’m gonna be mad, I’ll be mad at the fuckers who attacked, not the people concerned for everyone’s safety.”

“She has a good point,” said Kimi.

“But with the sun going down, we’ll have to wait until morning before we can go,” said Kaitan.

“And it doesn’t look like MSF will be done treating the wounded tonight,” said Gina. She sighed. “Why did this have to happen?”

“We gotta figure that part out ourselves,” said Julie.

“Easier said than done,” said Kaitan.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Pauahi led his warriors across the island and through the jungle, leading the captives all the way. His warriors stopped anyone who dared to escape and kept them in line. They even pointed their weapons at them to make sure if it. Their masks, helmets and facepaint did the rest of the job. Pauahi looked back and knew these captives would not try to make a foolish mistake. If they did, well, the jungle was big. And the animals weren’t known for being, well, “merciful”.

The sun was setting when they reached their destination. It was a stone pyramid, reaching up high into the sky. Its imposing façade of black volcanic rock made the captives tremble, cower and look up in anxiety. Their captors forced them onward. The pyramid’s equally-imposing wooden doors opened to reveal a black abyss, with small spots of torchlight being the only source of illumination the captives could see from the outside. “MOVE IT!” Pauahi shouted. “We do not have much time!”

“Where are you taking us!?” a wounded prisoner shouted.

“Where does it look like?” Pauahi snapped. “Get them inside!”

The captives were herded into the pyramid. Pauahi stood off to the side, where he waited until all 100 of them were inside before he re-entered. The wooden doors slammed behind him.

Inside, the pyramid was rather well-lit. That didn’t help the captives, as they were still herded through the pyramid, into a hallway. Pauahi watched them as they disappeared, accompanied by the warriors. The stone doors that opened to the hallway slammed shut and were sealed by a wooden bar.

“Well done, Pauahi,” a man’s voice called, echoing through the main room of the pyramid.

Pauahi turned around and slightly bowed at the waist. “Thank you, sir,” he said. “The mission was a success.”

“And yet, you seem troubled,” said the voice.

“We put an end to their silly Island Games,” Pauahi replied. “And I reintroduced myself to that fiend Kaitan. He did not remember me, but I am sure he will soon.”

“Fair enough,” said the voice. “But we must keep our eyes on the prize. It will not be long soon.”

“I have heard that a lot, but I am willing to be patient,” said Pauahi.

“You will not need to be patient for much longer,” said the voice. “Once our captives are asleep, we will have enough energy to begin phase 3.“


	5. Chapter 5

The Jungle Trio left early the next morning. They packed up their things, which, thanks to their minimalistic jungle wear, wasn't much, although Julie packed the new skull helmet she jacked from the battlefield. She walked up to Kaitan, carrying the skull helmet, looking all high, smug and proud about the battlefield trophy she took. Needless to say, Kaitan didn't know what to think, but he shrugged and let it be while he packed his gear on his buck's back.

Kimi complained about having to leave early, but Julie wasn't happy, either. So both of them sarcastically complained about it the entire time they packed up. It didn’t bother Kaitan that much, in fact, he chuckled whenever Julie talked about wanting to beat the crap out of her Pele Bethe Correia opponent again.

They were not the first ones to leave. The researchers left first after deciding that they had better things to do than just sit around and do absolutely nothing, so they packed up their cars and hi-tailed it out of there. Exiled and Paea tribes people were already getting ready to go, too. Many of the Pele were understandably sad to see them go, so they saw off a few of the spectators and participants with ceremony, gifts and simple good-byes.

Chief Kawa happened to be one of these well-wishers making the rounds this morning. He found the Jungle Trio preparing to leave, working on their deer steeds when he arrived with his entourage. Julie and Kimi had already mounted their steeds. All three of them stopped as he came forward. They also bowed, as was the polite and respectful thing to do in the presence of a Chief.

“Good morning,” he said unto them. “I apologize for the disastrous Games. I do hope you will come back when it is rescheduled.” He patted them all on the shoulder while his Kahuna blessed them with ti leaves.

“Thank you, Chief Kawa,” said Kaitan. “But it’s not your fault.”

“I am perfectly aware of that,” the Chief replied. He turned to Julie and Kimi. “It would have been amazing to see your friends succeed.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Julie.

“Thanks,” Kimi said also.

This made the 160-170-some-pound, babyfaced Jungle Dude smile.

“I have bad news for Julie, though,” said Kawa.

“What?”

“Your opponent from yesterday is missing,” he finished. “We took count after the attack. She was not among them.”

“Why’d you tell us?” Julie asked.

“I thought you might want to know,” he said.

“The only way it might matter is if she somehow comes back to bite us,” said Julie.

“Fine, don’t be worried,” said Kawa. “I just thought you might want to know, since you seemed rather determined to defeat her.”

“It’s okay, Kawa,” Kai bowed, reassuringly. “We’ll definitely be back.”

“I’m gonna kick so much ass,” said Julie.

“I hope you do as well, although I am not entirely sure what that means,” said Kawa. “But, did you enjoy yourselves?”

“ _Of course!_ ” They sounded off in perfect unison.

“Excellent! Please, have a safe trip!”

“We will,” Kaitan said as he bowed and waited until Kawa was gone before he mounted his deer steed and ushered it on. Julie and Kimi followed moments later, and they were off.

They rode off to the southwest at a gentle walking pace, putting the village behind them and their jungle home ahead of them. In between that, was the South-Central Grasslands. Despite the attack yesterday, the animals had come out in the midst of this bright, sunny and cloudless day to graze and get some water. Large land animals, like buffalo and deer mingled about in their herds, chomping down on the grass. A few predators watched them here and there, but hung out, too. It was the kind of day to just sit back, relax and enjoy this primitive lifestyle.

“Can’t get any better than this,” said Julie.

“Couldn’t agree more,” said Kaitan.

So they took the long way. Or at least, they took the easy-going pace, which probably makes much more sense for the day, and not just the route. They lived a lifestyle that took life as it came. And while some rewilders want to be like them, they won’t be this primitive. Ah well, all the power to them, anyway. The author likes civilization, after all. But, some people take to primitive living quite well, as our merry band has shown.

Of course, we could go on indefinitely over whether primitive life is better than civilized life, but this is pure fantasy.

A cool breeze blew. They felt it on their mostly-bare skin. It felt nice. Again, it was one of the simple pleasures of their lifestyle. The “bare necessities”, if you will.

Obviously bad reference is bad.

Besides, this is Tarzan, not… THAT movie-that-shall-be-unnamed.

They rode for a long time, probably a couple of hours. But when Kai checked his watch, he mentioned they’d only been riding for one. “Let’s keep riding for a while,” said Julie. So they did. They kept riding for another hour, and the deer didn’t get tired at all. The jungle could wait, they decided, since it would still be there, just like nature itself. But, after two hours, the need to rest grew until they all agreed it was time to take that break from travelling.

They stopped at a single tree in the middle of the plain, still a good distance from the jungle. They took the long way. The tree wasn’t very tall, but the branches spread far enough outward to cast a lot of shade for them to lay under. The trunk itself was split in two at the base in a V-shape. The Trio hitched their steeds to the trunk and set up for their break.

First, they killed a deer, cooked and ate it for lunch. A bit of an early lunch, but lunch, nonetheless. They also ate some dried fruit and had some water the researchers gave them. When lunch was over, Kaitan and Julie took to lying about in the branches to just have a simple, primitive moment between mates. Kimi took the opportunity to practice on her jungle tree climbing and turned the tree into her own little jungle gym that would make the kids back in Melbourne envious.

But the tree also allowed our savage lovebirds a place to cast their outfits off and goof around.

While Kimi practiced, Julie and Kaitan played, swinging on the branches and generally goofing around. Kaitan even hung himself upside down on the branch in front of a surprised Julie. His toothy, playful grin made her laugh and she took him in her hands and they kissed.

The kiss deepened. Kaitan let go of the branch and threw his slim, but muscular arms around his mate, kissing her even deeper, dipped her and earned a happy moan from her. She pushed backed, righted herself, spun him around and pinned him against the tree trunk. Hoo boy, things were getting heated.

But they were interrupted by Kimi clearing her throat. She hung upside down with her knees around the branch, her arms crossed and not interesting in the Jungle Couple’s… “mating”.

“No, please, keep going,” she said.

“Sorry,” Julie said, nudging the disappointed, but understanding Kaitan away. “Should we…”

“Please,” said Kimi.

Neither of them wanted to, but they put their outfits back on. Kimi swung to sit back up onto the low-hanging branch she was on. She turned around to face them. “By the way, Kai, how’d you get here?”

“I was shipwrecked,” he said. “I thought you knew that.”

“Right,” said Kimi. “I think, um, do you know anything about your da’?”

“Of course I do!” said Kaitan. “He owned a logging company up in the ‘Peg. Wasn’t that big, though. Just a small, family-run business that’s probably dead because, he’s… dead.”

“I’m sorry,” said Kimi.

“It’s okay,” said Kaitan. “I moved on.”

“Obviously,” said Kimi. “But what about your da’s company?”

“Like I said, it’s probably dead!” said Kaitan. “The only person I know of who could run it is my aunt, and my dad didn’t like her running the company.”

“Ugh, I keep forgetting to look it up,” said Julie. “Anderson logging, right?”

“Right!”

“Right, ‘cuz I didn’t hear anything good about them last time I looked,” said Julie.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

She was about to say, when they heard the sound of a blowing conch shell cut through the wide-open grassland. Kaitan and Julie jumped out of the tree, with Kimi following.

A caravan was coming towards them from the direction they came from. The colors of the banners being waved could be seen from their distance we recognizable. “Teo caravan!” said Kaitan.

“What are they doing here?” Julie asked.

“I don’t know,” said Kai. “Come on!” All three gathered up their things, doused the fire and mounted their deer before setting off.

They rode up to the caravan, stopping in front of what turned out to be a war party led by Manti and Kame. They knew this because there were no women and children among them. They were also armed to the teeth and decked out in the jungle/primitive/tribal Mad Max outfits they lifted from the dead attackers from yesterday. “What’s going on, Great Chief Manti?” Kaitan asked.

“A runner from an independent village found us on our way back,” said Manti. “We tracked you here, in case you need to know.”

“What happened?” Julie asked.

“His village was attacked!” Manti replied, “By the same attackers as yesterday.”

“Shit,” Julie hissed. “What are we going to do?”

“His village is not far from here,” said Manti, “Just to the southeast. I suspect it may be too late to stop them, but we need to get there as fast as possible.”

“We can go ahead,” said Julie.

“I am not positive about that plan,” said Manti. Julie nodded. “I need to obtain a steed myself. If you must, take the runner and Hilo with you. Do not ride at an exceptionally fast pace. We will follow your tracks.”

“So what about me?” Kimi asked when Julie translated for her.

“Go with the other warriors,” said Julie. “Hilo can ride on my deer.”

Kimi was not happy about it, but she quickly jumped off Julie’s deer. Hilo mounted afterwards. The runner from the independent village climbed up on Kaitan’s deer. "Just don't think about backstabbing us," Julie warned the runner.

“Wait for us at the edge of his village,” Manti ordered. “If there are any more attackers, I do not want you risking your life without help.”

“Thanks, Manti,” said Kaitan. “Which way, um…”

“Pua,” he said. He pointed to the southeast. “As Manti said, my village is that way!”

“Then let’s go!” Kaitan kicked the sides of his deer, pushing it on, with Julie following. Manti shouted to his warriors and they followed in hot pursuit.

They rode at a brisk pace for several minutes. Hilo looked behind to check on the war party and see if it was still in sight. He could see the banners behind them. But he turned his focus back to the task ahead. Neither Kaitan nor Julie said anything to each other, but they didn’t need to. Kai just turned to her. Their eyes locked and Julie nodded. In that moment, they kicked the sides of their mounts to urge them faster. It was almost as if something was terribly wrong.

They arrived after a 15-minute ride. It was a small village; a farming village, by the looks of the small patchwork of agricultural fields and an irrigation channel that led to a nearby river. And it was... a mess. A few crops that were planted in the small fields had been trampled by something. Indeed, the evidence of an attack was all over the place. Most of the huts were damaged, and a couple of them had been completely torn or burned down. And there was even the rotten smell of burnt animal and human flesh.

“Ugh,” Julie said as she covered her mouth while dismounting. “This is worse than yesterday.”

"Manti will not be happy," said Hilo, "But let's look around."

"Okay," said Kaitan.

They dismounted. The runner immediately ran into the village the moment his bare feet touched the ground, wearing a frantic expression. Julie grabbed her sword. Kaitan and Hilo grabbed their leiomanos. They followed the runner into the village, carefully treading over any corpses or carcasses that might be in their path.

“How many people lived here?” Kaitan asked.

“Seventy-five,” said Pua.

Julie counted the corpses. "Fourteen," she said. "And a few others. I count about 21."

"What might have happened to the rest?" Kaitan asked.

"Possibly either kidnapped or ran into the jungle," said Hilo, pointing to a jungle right at the southeastern edge of the village. “I hope your monkey friends can help us, Kai.”

“Why can’t you, Mr. Great Lieutenant?” Kaitan replied with a laugh.

“Watch it, Monkey-Boy,” Hilo replied. “We should find them.”

"Call them," Julie shrugged. She glanced at Pua.

"No, not yet," Hilo said after a second of re-consideration. "I am already disobeying the Chief's orders. I do not want to make things worse."

"Then why'd you bring us in here?" Julie asked.

"Get out of the village," Hilo grumbled.

"You're only saying that so you won't get in trouble," said Julie. "Hey, Pua! Come on, we're gonna wait outside the village like we were supposed to."

"Alright," said Pua.

So they waited for Manti's war party outside the outskirts of the village. He arrived some time later. They stopped in front of Julie, Kaitan, Hilo and Pua. Kimi rode on one of the warrior's backs. "How can you run like this for so long?" she asked.

"Practice," Julie quipped.

"Hilo, what did you find?" Manti asked.

"Not much," he said. "Pua said there were 75 people residing here. We believe some of them were killed, captured or escaped into the jungle."

"Did you investigate the village without my permission?"

Hilo hung his head. "Yes, sir," he said. "I sincerely apologize."

"Apology accepted, Hilo," said Manti. "I would have done the same thing. Come, we must remove the bodies. Send out a search party for any villagers who may have gone missing. NOW!"

" _Yes, sir_!"

The warriors immediately got to work. They carried the dead bodies away to stack them on a pile so they could easily dispose of them. Julie made them wear plastic gloves, which she mindlessly put in her bag like it was simply out of habit and no other reason that she could think up. It was best to be clean, and better to be safe than sorry, even though nasty blood-borne diseases like Ebola are not on the island. The researchers haven’t even confirmed a single case of rabies yet, but that didn’t mean they thought the disease wasn’t on the island.

The rest of the warriors headed out to the jungle to look for survivors who escaped. As if through sheer luck, they managed to find two little kids hiding in the brush, already munching on nuts they found. The warriors gingerly ushered the kids over to them, and they were relieved when the kids immediately ran up, hugging them. More people followed, but from the tracks the warriors found, and other stories, a few had escaped. They didn’t ask about captives, because that was for Chief Manti. In the end, seven were found.

Now that they were done cleaning up the bodies, the warriors inspected the huts. They found more bodies and more survivors hiding in the nooks and crannies of the huts, and this almost got a couple warriors in some kind of trouble. A simple explaining got them to calm down.

The survivors of the attack were gathered in the center of the now-destroyed village. Chief Manti walked up to the front of his war party and saluted them. “Greetings,” he said. “I am Manti, Chief of the Teo Confederation. Where is your chief?”

The villagers looked at each other. “We do not have one,” said an old woman.

“Ah, I see,” said Manti. “This is an independent village? Is that why you do not have a chief?”

“We run our village AS a village,” she said. “If you need a leader, then I will gladly talk to you.”

“What is your name, old crone?”

“Ailani,” she said.

“What happened?”

Ailani stood and explained what happened: The attackers came from the west. They attacked without so much as a warning or an order to surrender. She couldn’t imagine a reason why these people would attack, but she mentioned that they looked dead in the eyes. She talked about the chill in her spine, “It was the most frightened I have ever been. I have faced carnivores and other monsters in my day, but… I have never looked a walking dead man in the eyes before.”

Others, who saw the carnage first-hand, also told their stories. They all had the same description of their attackers: They appeared to be dead in the eyes, attacked without warning and mercy. Some of their fellow villagers were carried off by the enemies, either dead or alive.

It intrigued and perplexed Manti, and once they were done speaking to him, he said, “It sounds like the attack against the Island Games.”

“The Island Games!?” Ailani gasped. “This is no accident.”

“Of course not,” said Manti. “That is why we had to leave.”

“Damn,” said Ailani. “We are dealing with coordinated attacks.”

“Agreed,” said Manti.

“What are they talking about?” A bored Kimi asked herself. She wasn’t asked to help the Teo warriors clean up the bodies. And they wouldn’t let her search the village huts! And having no understanding of the Greystokian language was a pain in the arse. She sat with her legs crossed off to the side, away from the rest of the warriors, wishing she was a part of this. She sighed for like the 5th time. Goddammit, get this over with already, and—

She spotted the runner guy sneaking up behind Manti. And no one else noticed him! Where they all blind to the obvious assassination attempt? Julie and Kai had an excuse, as they stood off to the side of Manti, but everyone else ignored the runner sneaking up behind Manti, raising an obsidian knife above his head, about to stab Manti in the neck.

“LOOK OUT!” she cried.

Manti turned around just in time to see Pua, his eyes frozen open and his face still. “HE HAS THE EYES!” Ailani screamed.

Kaitan sprang into action, lunging for Pua. He grabbed his arm and grappled with Pua. The villager struggled with Kaitan, grappling against him, until he got a hold of Pua and threw him to the ground. He pinned Pua to the dirt and other warriors followed soon after, holding Pua down.

"I KNEW he was going to attack!" Julie shouted. “I called it!”

Kame must have known something was wrong, so he ran over to Pua’s side. “There is sorcery at work,” he said. He brushed the ti leaves over Pua’s struggling head, muttering a few incantations. One of them made Pua’s eyes roll back in his head and his body shudder. Kaitan and the warriors jumped off Pua as he began to convulse like he was having some kind of seizure. “Get my things!” Kame ordered to the warriors, and one rushed to bring his kit to him.

Then, two more enemies rose from the top of the pile and walked towards Manti and Kame with their weapons raised to kill. Kaitan sprang into action, rushing to the enemies and tackled both of them. Hilo followed that up with his own tackle to pin the second enemy down.

“Just as I suspected,” Kame said. He stood, took some sea salt out of his bag and tossed it onto Pua’s body, causing him to shudder and convulse much more violently. As Julie held Pua down, Kame walked over to the other two to brush them with ti leaves and throw salt on them. They both convulsed as violently as Pua did.

Kame went right to work, setting up a few items around each man. He then held the ti leaves up in the air and began to chant. Kaitan could tell that it was not a religious incantation, but one of pure magic. But he kept his opponent pinned to the dirt like he knew he had to do.

After several minutes, all three of them bucked their chests upward, screaming in such a way as to send a shock through every single person in the village, make them cover their ears and one even remarking that this must be what hell is like. I’ll give you three guesses as to who said it.

Then, the screaming finally stopped. Pua was first to snap up straight, followed by the other two. Julie kept him still. She took her hand off his skin and wiped it on the grass. Pua frantically whipped his head around until he finally settled on Julie. “Where am I?” he asked.

“You’re… home,” she said, confused.

“What? Who are you?”

“Are you kidding me, you—Oh wait, now I get it. HEY KAME! Pua doesn’t remember a thing!”

“How did you know my name?”

“Not surprising,” said Kame.

“I THOUGHT PUA WAS DEAD!” Ailani shouted.

“Maybe he was only mostly dead?” Julie asked.

Meanwhile, Kaitan helped the other two former-enemies stand up. They also appeared to be just as confused as Pua. It wasn’t surprising. What was surprising was the kids’ reaction to seeing Kaitan. "Kaitan has finally arrived!"

"Where were you?"

“I didn’t know…” he said, embarrassedly scratching his head.

“Kaitan cannot be in many places at once,” said Manti. “He is only human.”

“Yeah, sorry,” he said.

“Worry about Kaitan later,” said Ailani. “What happened to them?”

“I do not remember,” said the one Kaitan was holding up. “All I remember was, I was given something to drink by a pale-faced man. Not Kaitan, of course. He told me I had died and… that is all I can recall.”

“A pale-faced man?” Manti asked.

“Sounds like considerable sorcery,” said Kame. “I wish my spell did not erase their memory. But, if this person can do what I suspect he can do, then… I do not like this one bit.”

“But she said they were DEAD,” said Kaitan. “What’s going on?”

“Sounds like zombies,” said Julie. A very confused Kame, Manti and Kaitan turned towards her, even though she didn’t look phased one bit.

“Tom… pees?” Kame asked.

“ZOM-BIES,” Julie replied. “Think ‘Karza’, ZZZZZZZ!”

“ZZZZZZZ.”

“Now, BUH, BUH, BUH, like a harder ‘P’.”

“Puh, puh, BUH.”

“That’s it, that’s it!”

“What does this have to do with anything?” Manti interrupted. “What are these... Tsompies?”

“You mean those things on ‘The Walking Dead’?” Tim, who we kinda forgot about, asked.

“Not quite,” said Julie. “I mean the original zombie, from Haitian folklore. These are supposedly dead bodies brought back to life by a sorcerer to do their bidding. Sometimes, they’re made to think they’re dead, which is probably how it works in real life. Of course, Vodou’s a genuine religion, not that black magic shit you see in movies.”

“You just saw Kame cure those men with magic,” said Kaitan. “Forget science for now.”

“I like science, sweetie,” said Julie.

“If what Huli is talking about is true, then we are dealing with someone with considerable power,” said Kame.

“You will need our protection,” Manti said to Ailani. “Would you like to—”

“We have no intention of joining the Teo OR the Pele,” she said, drawing gasps from the Teo warriors, causing Manti to keep them calm.

“Very well, then,” he said. “Would you still appreciate some protection from us? In exchange for trade?”

“Trade is good,” she said. “I will accept that for now.”

“Good,” said Manti. “Ten of you will stay at the village. The rest of you can go home.”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

The Jungle Trio didn’t get back home for a couple more hours, when it was turning to dusk. They rode the last leg of the journey, through the jungle, at a quicker pace to avoid the total darkness in the thick brush. Should’ve brought a torch or a flashlight.

And they were exhausted when they finally reached the treehouse.

“I need a Long Island Iced Tea,” Julie sighed when she dismounted.

“What’s that?” Kimi inquired.

“You’ll find out when you’re older,” the Californian replied.

The Trio climbed up into the treehouse. Julie moved swiftly for her laptop, which she opened and promptly went to typing as soon as she pulled up a Word doc. Kimi flopped onto a chair near the bookshelf, slouching and stretching her legs out. Her bare feet felt gross for some reason. “Get me a smoothie!” she moaned.

“Make it yourself, my legs hurt,” said Julie.

Kimi was grumbling when she got up for the kitchen, when she heard someone over the HAM radio. She didn’t think when she picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

“ _SciTeam, calling Jungle Girl, SciTeam calling Jungle Girl_ ,” said the voice on the other end.

“OI! Who’s SciTeam?” she asked. Julie immediately jumped out of her seat and ran over to the radio.

“SciTeam, this is Jungle Girl, go ahead, over.”

“ _Uh, Julie, we have a situation,_ ” said Gina. “ _And it’s a bad one, over._ ”

“How bad, over?”

“ _Uh, there’s someone here asking for a Kyle, over,_ ” said Gina.

“HEY KYLE!” Julie shouted. Kaitan jumped down off the roof, squatting like a crab and ran into the room.

“Yes?”

“Someone wants to talk to you,” Julie said. She handed the microphone to him and stepped away.

“Um, this is Kyle—I mean, Kaitan.”

“ _KYLE!!!_ ” the shrill voice on the other end shrieked, causing the Jungle Dude to grimace, first at the volume, then at his shock.

“… Aunt Brenda?”


	6. Enter Brenda

“Your _aunt_?” Julie inquired while raising her eyebrow. “I thought you said—”

"Does it LOOK like I know what's going on!?" he hissed. "Aunt Brenda?"

"Kyle, it IS you!" her loud voice shouted, making all three since and cover their ears.

“A little louder, most of us still have hearing!” Julie snapped.

“Who’s Kyle?” Kimi asked, and her question was answered by Julie pointing at Kaitan.

“His real name,” she said.

“But what—oh, right, Anderson.”

“GUYS!” Kaitan stage whispered. “I have a BIG problem here! My AUNT, whom I haven’t seen in 8 years, is on the island!”

“Why’s she here?” Julie asked.

“What are you—no, that’s rude. Um, Aunt Brenda, it’s nice to talk to you, but… why are you here on the island?” he asked.

“ _Why, to see you, of course!_ ” she replied, as if it was so obvious even he should’ve figured it out. It was so obvious, even to him, that he groaned and rubbed his face. “ _I wanted to know what Jimmy’s son was doing on an island like this one!_ ”

Kaitan only needed to look up at Julie waving her arms around, shaking her head and mouthing a few things to get the signal. “Um, I’m kind of busy right now,” he said. Julie sharply rolled her eyes.

“ _Well then, can we meet, say, tomorrow?_ ” she asked.

He didn’t need to look to Julie to get an idea. “Sure,” he said. Julie and Kimi’s only reaction was to sigh in relief. Even he sighed. “How about noon?”

“ _Ooooh, a lunch date!_ ” she said. “ _Are you bringing anyone?_ ”

“My ma—uh, girlfriend—Julie!”

“ _YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!!!_ ” she screamed. “ _I CAN’T WAIT TO MEET HER!_ ”

Kai immediately decided to end the conversation before things went deeper. “Okay, noon tomorrow at the research camp. See you then!”

“ _See you!_ ” she said before Kai turned the radio off.

“Was I rude?” he asked.

“I dunno,” said Kimi.

“I’m sorry you have to feel this way, sweetie,” Julie said, walking up to him and stroking his cheek. “When we see her tomorrow, we’ll be honest; you’re a real-life Tarzan and prefer living in the wild instead of going back to civilization.”

“How do you know you she wants me to come back?” he asked.

“I think it’s pretty obvious,” she replied. “Why else would she come here?”

“Good point,” he said.

“Wot?” Kimi asked.

“I highly doubt that his aunt would’ve shown up RIGHT NOW to see Kai out of some altruistic reason,” said Julie. “Something’s up.”

“What if it is altruistic?” Kimi asked.

“That’s one possibility,” said Julie.

“You don’t know my aunt,” said Kai.

“Which is why I’m leaving a possibility,” said Julie. She turned away from him to walk over to her laptop. “I think I’ll look up some stuff on your dad’s company. Just in case. Meanwhile, you should try on some of those business casual outfits.”

“ARE YOU KIDDING!?” he shouted, not with anger, but fear.

“Well, whaddaya expect to wear to a lunch meeting!?” she asked. “THAT!? Those are jungle clothes, not something I’d want to wear to something pretty formal, even if I swore I’d never wear civilized clothes again and I’m just as unhappy about it as you are.”

Kai had something he wanted to say, but it stayed on the tip of his tongue, because he couldn’t figure out exactly what it was that he wanted to say. But knowing Julie was just as unhappy about this as he was, he could feel at least the tiniest bit relieved.

He stayed away from Julie and Kimi for the rest of the night, though. He sat out on the porch with his bare right foot dangling a couple stories off the ground, staring into the green, then black nothingness of the jungle. He only got up to have dinner, and once he was finished, he returned to the porch to sulk, or something like that. Maybe it wasn’t sulking, but thinking, instead.

But it irked, or at least appeared to irk, a certain woman from California; enough to make her look up from her laptop for too long extended periods of time to wonder if he was ever coming back inside. Every now and then the sight of him just sitting there got to be a bit much for her. It was just as annoying having to look up at him, since she’d lose her concentration and space on the page. Of course, Julie didn’t think that her mate’s concerns were invalid. But as she adjusted her hair bun, the thoughts of how he seemed to be acting worried her.

“Kimi, could you go outside and check up on Kai?” she asked.

The Australian in question grumbled as she put the copy of _Journey to the West_ down on the chair’s armrest.

“I heard that!” Julie called.

“Oi! Kaitan!” Kimi called out to the Jungle Dude who had his back to the treehouse and a thus illuminated. He turned around. “Julie wanted me to check on ya.”

“I’m fine,” he said. “Just thinking.”

“Bollocks,” Kimi muttered, a sentiment that Julie visibly shared. Fine time to be overdramatic like some stupidly overdramatic… anime or something.

But she knew he’d have to come inside eventually. And she knew when that was.

Tonight, they slept in a nest outside and above the treehouse. It was a ball-shaped nest built into the tree, made out of sticks and old branches. A comfy, but bare-bones bed was tucked inside, a mirror hung from the wall, and it even had a small little counter for a candle light or lantern. It also had a mosquito net covering both entrances. And a ladder attached to the treehouse led up to the front entrance. The nest was small, but its spherical shape made it bigger inside than it appeared on the outside. And it was very intimate, too.

They slept in the nest every now and then whenever they KINDA wanted to get back to nature. When they really wanted to sleep in nature, they’d sleep in a nest in a tree. There was also the added benefit of more privacy, and a little more, as we’ve already used the word “intimate”, with just the both of them in this little nest, it was good for a lot of “alone time”. Oh, and solitude. Kimi’s slept in here, and the Jungle Couple have slept by themselves, too. Individually, that is.

Kaitan lay in the bed, staring up at the branches when he heard someone climbing up the ladder. It was obviously Julie, and she carried a lantern and a book in her hands. After gingerly getting inside, she laid the lantern on the little counter before facing the mirror. There, she took her hair out of the bun, letting it cascade down her back in all its messy, wild glory. That would surely change when she washes it tomorrow. He didn’t look away, even when she removed her top and loincloth and attached it to a little hook above her.

“I love reading naked,” she said to herself. “By the way, now that we’re alone… what were you doing staring off into the jungle earlier?”

He moved to get up, but she kept him in place. “You’re not running away,” she said. “This is like that shit with the ruins a couple months back. I want answers. You’re scared, aren’t you?”

He didn’t answer.

She sighed and plopped down next to him so she could open the book and start reading. And she read in the, comfortable to her, uncomfortable for him, silence. He tapped his fingers on his toned, hairless bare chest, looking over at her every now and then to see her still reading. He hugged his slender, muscular body and turned to the side, only for her to start flipping pages even louder than she had before. This was getting ridiculous.

“You wanna talk?” she finally asked without looking up from her book. “Or would you rather let your monkey friends talk for you?”

He got up again. She bookmarked her page and closed the book in a split second enough to stop him right where he was and shoved him back onto the bed. “What is it?” she asked. She stroked his smooth cheek and played with his messy hair. “Something’s bothering you. Is it your Aunt Brenda?”

“Not really,” he said.

“Is it about the Island Games?”

“No,” he said.

“Was it about the guy you have a history with?”

He nodded hesitantly.

“I’ll count that,” she said. “But there’s more to it.” She looked him in the eye. Her eyes bore into his. Her face, illuminated by the lantern’s orange glow, wore a stern, but concerned expression. “Please, tell me,” she said in a soft voice. “You’re not an Ayn Rand character. You’re not stoic, like Tarzan. You need all the help you can get. And I want to help you. Please, just tell me.”

“It was earlier today,” he finally said. “Some of the villagers asked why I didn’t help them. I… I just… Ah, I dunno.”

“So it’s guilt,” she said to herself. “Kai, listen to me: you can’t be in two places at once. Chief Manti said it himself. Or was it Kame? Whatever, can’t remember. Oh wait, that’s not it, is it?”

“What kind of hero am I?” he asked.

“A human hero?” she replied. “I already said, you’re not Tarzan, and you’re definitely not Superman. But you’re kind and brave. I know you’re capable of great things. Just because you can’t be everywhere on a very large island doesn’t make you any less of a hero. You’ll always be MY hero. And I’ll always be glad I decided to stay with you. Because what I love about you is everything that makes you a great hero. Now listen to me! I’ve gone on and on!”

“But I wish I knew,” he said.

She laid still, then quietly shifted so that she was sitting up. “There’s more,” she concluded. She examined his fearful expression lit by the lantern’s orange glow. She’d never seen this particular expression ever since she went native, joining the Teo Tribe and then going wild. “On a scale of 1 to 10, how complex is this?”

“Eight,” he replied.

“An eight?” she asked, completely stunned in disbelief. “It’s that bad? Wait, do you even think you’re a good jungle hero?”

“I never said I wasn’t,” he said. They were both quiet as he shifted as well, removing his loincloth and sitting up with his legs crossed. She pulled her legs up to her chest and hugged them tightly.

“Tell me; PLEASE,” she begged, with a voice so low, but not a whisper, that only he, in their confined space, could hear her.

“I don’t know,” he said, just as quietly. He adjusted her legs and scooted closer to him. Their faces were inches apart and they could feel the others’ gentle breaths on the other. She gently touched his fidgeting hand and lifted his chin up so he could look her in the eye.

“It’s okay if you don’t know,” she said. “It’s okay to be scared. Quit acting like you have to be impervious to inner pain and stoic all the time. I know I sound like I’m repeating myself. But if it takes you to get into that thick, jungle-boy skull of yours, so be it!”

“It’s not just that,” he said.

“You know, I’m REALLY trying,” she said. “Work with me here!”

He glowered and turned away. She pulled him back to look directly at her.

“Something happened,” she said. “What was it?”

He swallowed; hard. “It was when I was 19,” he said. “I think it was before the Island Games. I was tracking these slavers who were bringing some slaves away. I attacked them and tried to free the slaves. Some of them got away. But so did some of the slavers. They didn’t kill any of their slaves, but they brought them with them.”

“So you think you’re a failure,” she said. “You’re NOT a failure. Is that it? Everyone fails. I even failed a class when I was at Berkeley. I’ll do what I can to help, okay?”

“Okay,” he said.

“What did I just say?” she asked as she got up in his face. She stopped and then started to laugh. “Man! If this were a movie, I’ll bet critics will say this is the best scene! Sorry, sorry. We can face this. Together. Okay?”

The Jungle Dude hesitated and thought for a moment, before he finally slightly smiled. He kissed her as a gesture of thanks. She kissed back for a second, then stopped him for a moment. He was unhappy about it at first, but then she turned to blow out the lantern.

Making love in a nest hanging three stories above the ground in the jungle is very fun.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

They were woken up by a familiar sound of something hard hitting the nest’s wooden shell. It wasn’t a bunch of monkeys dropping nuts or… road apples… but a torrential downpour. It’s just one of many downpours, and why the jungle, or the tropical rainforest, is called a rainforest, because it fucking rains! Julie got up and stuck her head out of the little nest-ball. Her hair long, mid-back-length hair was soaked in seconds. In just as many seconds, she woke Kaitan up, grabbed her outfit and climbed out of the ball-nest.

Kaitan wasn’t far behind. He was soaked as quickly as she was, and had to climb down the ladder as carefully as she was. Once they reached the porch, Julie ran inside. She came out a minute later with Kimi, some buckets to collect drinking water, razors, shaving cream, shampoo and some soap. This was not the first time Kimi would shower in the rain of the jungle, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. But she reacted to it the same way she did when she first got the chance, with pure and utter excitement.

They all showered together. This is actually fairly common in some places of the world, like Japan, where children and adults bathing together is considered to be “normal”. But for the sake of privacy, Julie and Kai faced away from Kimi. They soaked in the rain first. Then they went under the overhang of the roof so they could soap up. Then they went back into the rain. Then back under the overhang to shampoo. Then back again.

The author has never actually been naked in the rain (in fact, he hates being out in it), but the Jungle Trio loved it. They laughed and giggled, splashing water on each other, even as Julie and Kai were shaving. With it being in the morning, they had plenty of time to forget their troubles and just enjoy the natural rain cascading down their now-clean skins. It just felt right. It was the small moments that made their lives in the rainforest all the more worth it.

They came inside after several minutes to dry off and for Kai and Julie to get ready for the lunch date they both dreaded. You could see it in their eyes every time they looked at each other. It started when Julie was helping Kimi brush her hair. Kaitan walked past the both of them, and he and Julie shared a quick, worried glance. Kimi noticed this for a split second. But the relaxation and sisterly-from-another-misterly bonding she was enjoying with Julie soured.

Breakfast didn’t offer a respite. Even though the atmosphere was jovial and relaxed, the occasional glance or wrong look derailed the conversation and had Kai and Julie looking at each other. It got awkward, really easily and really fast. Kimi was so frustrated that she finally asked, “What’s going on? Are you that worried about your aunt, Kaitan?”

The Jungle Dude rolled his eyes, sighed and put the fork down. He stood up and tried to walk out, but not before Julie grabbed his wrist to keep him still. “No, we need to talk,” she said. “I said I wanted to help.”

“Yeah, but how are we going to do that?” he asked.

“Sit down,” said Julie. He did that. “Alright, here’s what I think we should do. I may have said this last night, but I’ll say it again. Maybe we should just be honest: That you love it here and don’t want to go back to Canada.”

“What if she doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer?” he asked. “I kinda remember that she was pretty stubborn at one Christmas party.”

“Well, I’m not going to take that answer,” said Julie. “From her, not you.”

“You could try lying,” said Kimi.

“We could,” said Julie. “But we should be prepared if she calls our lies out pretty quickly. And if we have to, we’ll be blunt. Just say shit like how bad you smelled when I first met you.”

“HEY!”

“You smelled like ASS,” she said. He quickly smelled his pits. He smelled of aloe.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Maybe I could tell her about the jungle,” said Kaitan. “Like about how everything could kill her, like it almost killed you.”

“Ah, a darkly humorous warning, I like it,” she said while steepling her fingers.

“Or just a warning,” he said.

“Your tone said otherwise,” Julie replied.

“I think you should go all ape and tear into a piece of meat,” said Kimi.

“But Aunt Brenda’s a vegetarian,” he said. “She won’t have meat served.”

“Oh,” Kimi groaned.

“It was an honest effort,” said Julie.

“Of course,” Kaitan said as he played with the applesauce in his plate, mixing it with the scrambled eggs and bacon. “Unfortunately, I haven’t seen her in years, so—”

“Vegetarians I know tend to stay vegetarians,” said Julie. “Especially in LA. Hell, when I went to Berkeley, I met a girl who was raised vegan.”

“Got it,” he said.

“And, I know you’re not going to like this,” she said nervously. “But you’ll have to wear something nice. Wait, I already said that. Didn’t I say that last night?”

“You did.”

“Whatever,” she said. “You’re going to wear something nice and so will I. Now, let’s get ready.”


	7. Aunt Brenda

George of the Jungle looked pretty darn good in Armani.

Kaitan of the Jungle didn’t have Armani. He couldn’t afford it. He had Calvin Klein.  And that got him worrying about money. He didn’t have any job skills that would translate to the modern world. Except maybe wood-carving. But as Julie pointed out, no one gives a flying fuck about artistic talents in this day and age. Hell, even working at a furniture factory was going to be tough.

This is why he doesn’t belong in civilization. The stress of just thinking about it was getting to him. How well he could deal with the constant, chronic pain of real-world stress was unimaginable. Okay, he did have one part-time job The Peg, but he was only three months into the job when he took that trip that got him here.

And the worst part about this was the fact that for the first time in years, he had to WEAR CLOTHES.

Kyle wore clothes in The Peg. Societal expectations and Canada’s notorious winters necessitated this fact. The heat, humidity, and freedom from those societal expectations, meant that he hadn’t worn anything except a series of Tarzan loincloths for years, only breaking that every now and again to be fitted for clothes. This was definitely about to change, and Kaitan of the Jungle knew that Kyle Anderson, born in Winnipeg, would have to return. And once he was finished, he’d always tear those full-body handcuffs off, but only figuratively, because those clothes cost Julie a pretty penny.

So he stared at the closet of these clothes, wondering which ones he was going to pick. He already knew to wear something light in both color and fabric due to the heat and humidity. Picking the right one out was going to be difficult. There were a few light-colored shirts he could wear, but the dark-colored khakis were a different story. But since Julie had already called for a car, he didn't have to worry much about walking in the jungle.

So he picked out a light blue, button-up shirt and a pair of dark khakis. He walked over to the mirror to get a look at himself. As soon as he covered up his jungle appearance, he felt several emotions, the most prominent of which were nervousness and embarrassment. _Oh spirits, do I really look that stupid?_ he thought about his loincloth.

But he kept it on. To be fair, it was a clean loincloth. Even though they didn't have much in the way of laundry, they still had to clean some smelly garments.

He pulled the khakis on first. Then a plain white t-shirt, followed by the light-blue dress shirt. He instinctively buttoned up his shirt, something he’d practiced as a kid. It was as natural to him as hunting. Then he rolled up his sleeves. He checked the mirror again. The outfit was form-fitting, and reminded him of how slim he was. To be fair, he already knew that. But being 170 lbs wasn’t noticeable in just a loincloth.

Kaitan was not here. Kyle was back.

Of course, he recognized that he’d probably have to get a haircut, which he sighed and resigned himself to. But he also didn’t hate it. Long jungle hair was hard to take care of. When he first met Julie, his hair was long and wild (even Manti commented on it), and she forced him to get a haircut. He liked it. To be fair, he was looking forward to this part. He hadn’t had a haircut since then.

“Kyle!” Julie called upon entering their bedroom. She dressed like she hadn’t left civilization. She wore a light blue sleeveless blouse and a knee-length skirt. “You look really handsome.”

“Thanks,” he said hesitantly.

“Don’t worry, we won’t get it cut too short,” she said. “We’ll probably just go for the Luke Skywalker look.”

“That’s a relief,” he said.

“By the way, you’re not going barefoot.” She pointed down at his still-bare feet. He groaned, cringed and sighed. She walked over to the dressed and pulled out a pair of cotton socks. She also got a pair of shoes for him. “I’m sorry, Ky,” she said. “You have to wear these.”

“Fine,” Kyle said, resigning his fate to the prison of socks and shoes. They felt confining. He wiggled his toes to get a grip in the shoes, but it was no use. He’d gone barefoot for so long that he stumbled on the shoes. “This isn’t good. I can’t feel the ground!”

“Sorry,” she said as she put some earrings on.

While she focused on her earrings, he tried to get re-adjusted to the feeling of shoes on his feet for a prolonged period of time. It was… no fun. He stumbled about, almost falling down a couple times. Pretty soon, he almost fell on to Julie, but she spun around, caught him and helped him up. This would be ship tease if they weren’t already in a relationship. So Julie simply sighed and helped him get back on his feet. “I should’ve helped you get used to shoes,” she said.

“I hate these things,” he said. “They’re like that cruel and unusual punishment your country’s constitution forbids.”

“You’re thinking of high heels,” said Julie. “I swore I’d never wear them, and I never will.”

“But I don’t wanna slip and slide!”

“How about this?” she asked. “I’ll hold on to you to help you out. We’ll just link arms like we usually do to show we’re inseparable.”

“You’re such a romantic,” he said.

“And you love me for it, Kyle,” she said, kissing his cheek. “Now, try walking around to get used to it.”

Kyle nodded and gingerly walked along the wooden floor out into the living room. Kimi read a Harry Potter book in the big chair, ignoring them until they came by. That’s when she looked up. She tried to stifle her sniggering at how Kaitan—KYLE—had trouble walking in a pair of dress sneakers. She opened her mouth to speak, but Julie cut her off.

“I’m going to lock the liquor cabinet,” she said. “There’s still some stuff you can eat, unless you want to go out unsupervised. But, I’m pretty sure you can take care of yourself reading some books. If you need to defend yourself, the arrows and spears are right next to the radio. No guns. You’re not ready for that. Think you can handle yourself?”

“Sure,” said Kimi.

“Good,” said Julie. The car horn beeped outside. “We’ll be back some time this afternoon. If you need us, don’t be afraid to radio the research camp to let us know. We’ll be back as—”

“OI! When’d you turn into my mum!?”

“I’m not your mom, I’m your sister from another mister!” Julie snapped. “Can’t a big sister be concerned for her little sister?”

Kimi snorted, dug deeper into the seat and buried herself in the book.

John Tamou waited for them in the topless Jeep at the foot of the tree, watching them descend the rope ladder to the ground. He snickered upon the sight of Kyle stumbling with Julie trying to keep him up. “Have a nice trip, Jungle Boy?” he asked.

“Eat shit!” Kyle replied.

“Completely worth it,” John said to himself while they both got in the car. Once they were settled in, he was off.

They got to the research camp about ten minutes later, and an hour before their scheduled meeting with Aunt Brenda.

The first thing they did was to take Kyle to the camp’s barber. When he first went, his hair was a tangled mess of matting and dreadlocks. Now, it was still messy, but nowhere near had the same mess it was when he was first discovered in the jungle. The barber was relieved. He got right to work, washing his already-washed hair and then proceeded to work on it. In a total of 45 minutes including the hair-washing, he’d shortened it just enough to the same length and style that Mark Hamill had in “A New Hope” and “The Empire Strikes Back”. The difference being that Kyle’s hair is brown. So it could just be described as Luke’s style with Han Solo’s hair color.

Julie, meanwhile, just had her hair trimmed and pulled into a ponytail because it was so long.

And they didn’t have to wait long for Aunt Brenda.

“KYLE!!!!” a piercing shout echoed through the campsite and disturbed some of the nearby birds and bats. Even the other researchers stopped in their tracks to look at a middle-aged woman run up and hug the bewildered young man in question.

“Nice to see you again, Aunt Brenda,” he said.

Aunt Brenda looked like your average middle-aged soccer mom, wore a business casual blouse and skirt, a pair of earrings and a big grin. Her slender frame was smaller than Julie’s, and she was almost as tall as her nephew. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it, you look so HANDSOME!” she said, “Just like your father!”

“Thanks,” he said.

“And you must be Julie! Gina’s told me a lot about you!”

“Thanks,” she said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure’s all mine,” said Aunt Brenda. “What are we doing, come, come, sit down! I want to hear all about you!”

They sat down at a table within the little outdoor dining area in the center of the camp. They were served some tea, coffee and PB&J sandwiches.

“So, Aunt Brenda,” said Julie, “Are you Mr. Anderson’s sister?”

“Oh, heavens, no!” she laughed. “Kyle’s father is my brother-in-law!”

“Oh, so you’re his mom’s sister,” Julie concluded. Aunt Brenda nodded before setting her tea down. “I admit, we weren’t expecting you.”

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I get that a lot! So, Julie, tell me about yourself.”

“Okay, I was born in Palo Alto, but I grew up in Santa Barbara,” she said. “My dad was a teacher, first in a high school in Palo Alto, then he got a job in Santa Barbara. My mom runs a small camping and outdoors store.”

“So I guess the outdoors have been in your family for a long time,” said Aunt Brenda. “What do you like to do?”

“Oh, I like to read, take hikes through the jungle, blog… I read a lot,” said Julie. “A lot of Harry Potter.”

“I like to read and explore, too,” said Kyle. “I have dad’s old Tarzan books, some Steinbeck and Harry Potter, too. You should really explore the jungle, by the way, it’s the most beautiful thing you’ll ever see in your life. Just the pristineness of it will give you chills.

“That sounds great!” said Aunt Brenda. “Julie, Gina said you went to college at UCLA?”

“Yeah, and I graduated early,” she said with subtle pride. “The semester in the field was all I needed to finish my degree in anthropology. Right now, I’m studying the native populations. They have so much in common with the Native Hawaiians, language included, that I think their ancestors were part of the Polynesian migrations that went to Hawaii. They may have split off and landed here.”

“Oh, that’s amazing!” Aunt Brenda commented. “What was your minor?”

“Biology,” said Julie. “I like to consider myself a good scientist.”

“That’s amazing!” said Aunt Brenda. “What about you, Kyle?”

Kyle hesitated momentarily, enough for Julie to notice and subtly cringe. And scream internally. “I’m a research assistant,” he said. So far, so good. “I help Julie with her research into the Teo Tribe. I’m the translator. One of my favorite things to do is to go and explore the rainforest.”

“Really,” said Aunt Brenda. “Is that why they call you ‘Kaitan of the Jungle’?”

Needless to say, the cat was out of the bag before it was even put in the bag. It was easy for Julie to be angry at Kyle, but she was angrier at herself for not going over how they were going to make a story to convince Aunt Brenda. She also figured that it was going to be very hard to come up with another story that explained what a person declared missing in Canada was doing. “I’ve read the magazine articles,” said Aunt Brenda. “Apparently, you've had a few adventures.”

There was that, too.

“Well…” Julie trailed off. She looked over at Kyle, and she guessed that he wasn’t sure what to say about their “adventures” either. “It’s complicated. Kyle did survive the shipwreck that killed his parents.”

“I survived with the Teo’s help,” he said. “They taught me to survive in the jungle.”

“Aren’t you like Tarzan or something?” Aunt Brenda asked.

“I’d rather not talk about that,” he said. “Julie came into my life when she came with the researchers. I really love her, by the way. She’s passionate, especially about things she really likes.”

“Kaaaaaiiiii!” Julie blushed.

“Oh, you two are so cute!” Brenda cooed. She re-gathered herself, cleared her throat and sipped her tea. “So, you two love each other. I can see that. What made you want to stay, Julie?”

“I don’t really have an answer for that,” said Julie. “I think it may have been love; love for Kyle, the Teo, the island, the jungle, the animals… I could have just as easily been a researcher.”

“I stayed because I didn’t have a choice,” said Kyle. “It was either survive of die. I’m kind of surprised I didn’t turn into a feral child like what Julie talks about. I guess it was the Tribe who helped out.”

“The reality is that a character in the vein of Tarzan or Mowgli wouldn’t happen in real life,” said Julie. “A feral child—”

“Okay, okay,” said Brenda. “I get it. But how did you have those muscles?”

“Exercise and a balanced diet,” said Kyle. “The Teo really taught me how to cook my meat and which plants to eat. Swinging on this tree branches really helped.”

“Well, I was already like this before I came, so—”

“Oh, so those are real?” Aunt Brenda asked, pointing at Julie’s chest.

“OF COURSE THEY’RE REAL!!!” Julie shouted in embarrassment while crossing her arms over her chest. “MY BOOBS JUST HAPPEN TO BE THE AVERAGE SIZE FOR SOMEONE MY AGE, HEIGHT AND WEIGHT!!!”

“Julie, calm down!” Kyle pleaded.

“The stories about her were true,” said Aunt Brenda. “She’s very spirited. Oh, I’m so sorry. It’s a touchy subject, isn’t it?”

“Unfortunately,” said Kyle.

“Of course,” said Aunt Brenda. “Now, I’m sure you both want to know why I’m here, besides finally getting to see my sister’s son for the first time in years.”

“Of course,” said Kyle.

Aunt Brenda sighed, took another sip of tea and had some of her PB&J before she spoke again. “Kyle, do you remember your father’s logging company ever being successful?”

“Nah,” he said. “But dad was happy.”

“Of course,” she said. “Lawrence Anderson was a happy man. Well, I’m in charge of the company now.”

Kyle’s mouth gaped open in surprise, and so did Julie’s. Well, it wasn’t the most surprised. “Basically, I was the only family member who could take it over,” she continued. “But, we’ve managed to help the company grow, and we’re now the largest logging company in Manitoba!”

“Wow!” Kyle said, his amazement getting in the way of his love of nature.

“And what does this have to do with Kyle?” Julie asked.

“I want Kyle to come back so he can be a part of the family business, said Aunt Brenda.

Both Kyle and Julie registered their displeasure with this.

“No! No, no!” Julie said. “Not happening! Okay, he’s not a feral child, but I wouldn’t recommend him going anywhere near a city any time soon. He’d probably make a mess of things.”

“I’d eat pigeons all day,” he said. “Hunting instincts. Oh, plus, I have no idea how to run a business!”

“Mrs…”

“Nelson.”

“Nelson!” Julie finished. “The jungle does stuff to you. It makes you… an animal! Like this guy here, he’ll go weeks without bathing. I mean, you should’ve smelled him when I first ran into him. Whooo-wee!”

“Yeah, and I know the business world is a jungle, but I don’t think I’m prepared for THAT kind of jungle!” said Kyle. “Not only do I have absolutely no experience running a business of any kind, I don’t think I’m ready for that. And I’ve heard that corporate predators are much more vicious than one of these jungle cats!”

“That’s okay! I can teach you!” said Brenda.

“Yes, but we’re talking about a jungle boy here,” said Julie.

“What would investors think when they find out I grew up in the jungle?”

“You see, nature is a cruel, savage thing!” said Julie. “That’s why I wouldn’t recommend this lifestyle to just anyone—and why I think primitivists and anarcho-primitivists have it wrong, because what about people with disabilities? And there was also these militia types who thought this was easy, but found out their Ayn Rand, conservative philosophy didn’t work here. They’re all dead!”

“See, the jungle does something to you,” Kyle said. “It messes with your brain!mi don’t belong in civilization with sane people!”

“Who knows? He could turn into a wild animal during a board meeting!” said Julie.

“All the more reason you need to come back!” Aunt Brenda said. The coupe, stared at her in comical shock, and Julie dropped the biscotti she’d grabbed.

“Mrs. Nelson,” she said, “This is Kyle’s home now. He ain’t going anywhere. Ah damn, my grammar suffered.”

“Of course he is!” said Brenda. “After all, you got him to wear something!”

“I’m lucky I was around people so my brain could develop correctly,” said Kyle. “I could be like Frozen Caveman Lawyer, for all I know!”

“You wouldn’t want that, would you?” Julie asked.

“Kyle, the company is growing,” said Aunt Brenda. “We have a contract to help clear the forests in Alberta for tar sands development.”

Kyle suddenly cringed, took several break through his nose and calmed himself down. Then Julie said, “Was that contract legal?”

“What?”

“Oh, you didn’t know? Because the National Post said the Mounties were investigating your company for bribery!”

“Julie, what?” Kyle asked.

“Ask her!”

“Aunt Brenda?”

Her veneer of a white, middle-aged corporate soccer mom was starting to slip. “I beg your pardon?”

Julie had come prepared. She reached into her bag and pulled out some papers that she handed to Brenda. “Don’t play dumb,” she said. “According to a whistleblower, you paid both the Alberta provincial authorities AND Canadian federal authorities to get those contracts!”

Instead of fessing up like Julie expected, Aunt Brenda laughed derisively. “Come on,” she said. “On what evidence? A disgruntled employee trying to bring down the business? Please, you have no evidence. I can’t believe the Post would publish such claptrap. Besides, his evidence is flimsy at best, just some hearsay and made-up nonsense.”

Julie didn’t want to argue with Aunt Brenda. So she nodded instead, deciding that it was best to let Aunt Brenda confess on her own, and to stop herself from digging herself too deep. “Okay, then,” she said. “But, I think we already know the answer to your offer.”

“And that answer is ‘no’,” said Kyle. “I kinda like it here.”

Aunt Brenda scoffed, much to Julie’s non-surprise. “I’m afraid that’s not going to cut it, Kyle,” she said. “It’s best if you come home.”

“I _am_ home,” he said.

“And I kinda like it here,” said Julie. “I know my family wasn’t happy, but they’re happy that I’m happy.”

“You sure you want to stay?” Aunt Brenda asked.

“Positive,” said Kyle.

“Besides, we’re kind of busy right now,” said Julie. “Somebody just attacked an island-wide Olympics-like thingie. Doctors Without Borders, who just got here a couple days ago, are still helping to treat the wounded.”

Brenda scoffed. “Sorry, but I didn’t fly thousands of miles to Hawaii, then take a seaplane ride here just to be turned away,” she said. “I’m coming back with Kyle, and that’s it.”

“You’re welcome to stay a while,” said Julie.

“But I’m not going anywhere.”

“You can either come home with me, or you can stay here and live out a childish, immature fantasy,” said Aunt Brenda.

“No, seeing a woman get knocked out and/or eaten by a snake is a childish fantasy,” said Julie. “A REALLY childish fantasy. Re-wilders are also living a childish fantasy.” Besides, this story is a fantasy.

“Kyle, you have two days to get ready,” said Aunt Brenda. “You’re coming home whether you like it or not.”

“Oh, go fuck yourself, BITCH!” Julie’s temper got to her.

“Julie!” Kyle said, grabbing her arm to try to calm her down. “I’m really sorry. It was nice to see you again, Aunt Brenda.”

“It was a pleasure to meet you,” said Julie. “Thanks for the coffee.”

The couple stood up and walked away. And Julie was already in such a rotten mood she didn’t see anyone ahead of her until she crashed into someone emerging from one of the tents. Even though she didn’t hit her head, wasn’t concussed or knocked out, she was still surprised to find herself on the ground without so much as a word.

“Julie!” Kyle ran up to her and pulled her up off the man she knocked into.

“OHMYGODI’MSOSORRYIDIDN’TMEANTORUNINTOYOUIREALLYHOPEYOU’REOKAYAND—“

“It’s fine, it’s fine!” said the man she knocked into. “Oh, you’re Kyle!”

“Uh, yeah?” he said. “Who are you?”

The man stood up and said, “What, you don’t remember me?” His wavy brown hair had a few specks of gray here and there. And although he was taller than him, he had the same body frame as Kyle. Said young man shook his head. “It’s Uncle Brett!”

“Uncle Brett… Uncle Brett!? You came, too?”

“Who?” Julie asked.

“This is my Uncle Brett,” said Kyle. “He’s Aunt Brenda’s husband. Uncle Brett, yes, this is Julie.” Brett Nelson extended his hand to shake Julie’s. She had to wipe the dirt off her hand.

“Sorry,” he said. “Been working with a few things in the botany tent. Are you already leaving?”

“Of course,” said Julie. “Your wife is stubborn.”

“I know,” he said. “Good to see you again!”

“Good to see you, too,” said Kyle. He and Julie walked past him to the waiting car.

Aunt Brenda walked up to him and stared at him. He looked back at her, then back to the couple getting in the car. “I’ll handle it,” he said.

“Good,” she replied.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaitan doesn't know what he wants and Julie goes to get some answers from someone who might know what is going on.

John didn’t ask any questions on the way back to the treehouse. He was a people person and he knew they were in a bad mood just by their body language. He also heard them yelling at their guest. So he knew better than to ask the both of them what happened. He could just tell it didn't go well.

But he was curious.

“So, how’s your aunt, Kyle?” he asked with a shit-eating grin. Their combined groans told him all he needed to know, and he chuckled quietly.

The car stopped at the base of the trunk, next to the Jungle Couple’s deer steeds, who sauntered up to the car to give it a sniff. Both of them jumped out of the car, so they could greet their steeds. Julie was in the middle of stroking her steed’s muzzle when something caught her eye.

While Kyle struggled to stay upright, she walked over to the object, which turned out to be more than one object. She knelt to get a better look at the four arrows either sticking out of the ground, or laying on it. She looked back at the treehouse. Judging by their angle, that’s where they had to come from. And the only thing she could imagine was,

“Kimi!”

Of all the things to be concerned about on the island—deadly creatures, evil magicians, her boyfriend’s future, and an unforeseeable future due to climate change—she was most concerned about the teenager that she considered to be like her sister, residing in her treehouse.

Luckily, when she emerged after a delay of a couple seconds, she let out a relieved sigh once she saw that she was okay, but carrying a bow and quiver. And she was just as concerned and scared as Julie was.

“Kimi, stay there!” Julie called. “We’ll be up there in a minute!” Kyle immediately kicked his shoes and socks off and climbed up the rope ladder. Julie followed not long after, and so did John, mainly carrying Kyle’s discarded shoes and socks.

“Kimi, what happened?” Kyle asked.

“Someone came into the clearing while you were gone!” she replied, pointing to the east in the direction of the arrows. “I told them to leave, but they wouldn’t stop! They just moved like zombies, like—” She mimicked the movements of a zombie, right down to the outstretched arms, eyes kinda rolled back, and groaning. “I had to shoot them before they left.”

“I found four arrows,” said Julie. “You shot them?”

“Yes,” Kimi nodded. John had already gone inside to check around. Kyle wasn’t far behind.

“Why didn’t you try to call us?” Julie asked.

“I was scared,” said Kimi.

Julie did not get mad, but she hugged Kimi. “It’s okay,” she said. “You chased them off, that’s important. And thanks for telling us.”

“Everything’s alright,” said John.

“Oh, wait!” Kimi said. “Tim called! He said Kame invited that Pua bloke to the seasides village later tonight. He wanted you and Kyle to go.”

“I’ll definitely go. Kyle! Kyle?”

Kyle had already taken his clothes off, revealing the loincloth he was still wearing under his modern outfit. Julie was prompted to also remove her clothes, showing that she was still in her jungle outfit, too. But most importantly, he didn’t look happy. “Kyle, I’m really sorry if I embarrassed you in front of your aunt,” she said softly. “I just want what’s best for you.”

“No, for you,” he said. “Were you even thinking about me?”

“In a way, yes,” she replied. “But… are you really thinking about going back? Sorry. I’m selfish, I know. I just like it here, and—”

“I haven’t decided yet,” he replied. His wish to go back to Canada to see his friends and family conflicted with the desire to stay in the home he made for himself, with his new family, friends and the woman he loved. Said women cupped his cheek, moved closer to him and held him close to her. He also held her to let them have their wordless conversation.

They hugged tightly.

They stayed like that for several minutes before they both let go. Kai grabbed his bow, quiver and spear, then walked over to the edge of the porch. In an instant, he jumped off the porch, onto a branch and went back into the jungle.

“Leave him be,” Julie told John. “He just needs some time to himself.”

“Right,” John sighed. “What are you going to do now?”

“I’ll call the Teo,” she said. “I want to find out more.”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Kai debated internally if he was running away from his problems or he was just so stressed that he needed to get away. It was probably a combination of both, but until he realizes it, he didn’t know which one was the dominant emotion.

For now, he sat in the trees, watching the jungle creatures scurry about and letting himself get carried away by the distracting quiet. He was certainly leaning towards staying, considering this was where he’d made his home. But he also thought about his friends in Winnipeg. Had they forgotten about him? He wouldn't be surprised if he knew they’d moved on by now, and probably understood their reasons. Rubbing his forehead, he thought how upset they probably were.

Some leaves rustled to the left of him. He pulled an arrow out, nocked it and pointed it at the intruder. It was just a small monkey running past him, not even bothering to look at the death arrow pointed at him. The Jungle Dude sighed and chuckled, then put the arrow back in the quiver. He stood up and looked around.

Then, he squatted down on the branch. There’s a reason he was leaning towards staying, even if he’s not going to decide for a while; he survived and made his home here.

Momentarily, he thought back to an earlier time; the earlier-mentioned incident when he failed to stop a group of bandits from taking several islanders as slaves. His eyes cast downward, his fist and teeth clenched and he growled in frustration. He swore he’d do his best to save whomever needed it, but that obviously never came to be. And now things were steadily spiraling out of his control. His worst nightmare had come to life in all the wrong ways.

It affected him so much, he was having a hard time getting back into wild/feral/jungle mode.

Needless to say, it’s easier when he doesn’t have these issues and the crushing doubt of a personal crisis. He sat down to rub his face so he could get some sort of doubt out of his mind. He knew that saving people was now a part of him.

“But why am I doing this?” He asked himself. He groaned again. It was rather obvious that a lot of the great heroes of literature—Harry, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Mowgli, etc—suffered some kind of self-doubt along the way. He didn’t like it when he had to do it. He couldn’t remember the last time he suffered some kind of self-doubt, probably because he wasn’t one to really linger on those feelings. Surviving on an undiscovered island kinda prevented him from feeling that way. He couldn’t tell if that was a good or a bad thing. He’d need help.

A small monkey scurried up to him, interrupting these thoughts of self-loathing. “Hey, little guy,” he said in English before switching to ook-ing and chattering like a monkey while also scratching the monkey’s head. The monkey chattered back as if he knew what the human was saying. Kaitan chuckled as the monkey got on his back shoulder. “I think I need some help,” he said in English. He said it again in the monkey-speak, making the small primate tilt its head like a dog. It was apes and monkeys that helped him get acclimated to living in the jungle; not directly, he kinda just wandered into a troop of apes and that was it.

“I I know, I know,” he said before saying it again in monkey, “I’m having a very bad day.”

The little monkey ook’ed, chattered and screeched for a couple moments. Kaitan grunted back. “Do you think I’m a bad hero?” He asked. “I mean, why do I even do this?”

It was clear the monkey didn’t have an answer for him. That answer was probably one he’d have to find himself, and he figured it out quickly. “Figures,” he said. “Do you think I’m running away from my problems?”

The little monkey jumped off of his shoulder and scurried away. Kaitan sighed, sat back and wondered what he was going to do now.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

John had decided to stick around to wait for Julie to contact the Teo tribe. She finally did that at around 3:00 in the afternoon, when she jogged into the parlor, completely naked. By now, John had already gotten used to her little jungle eccentricities. So he shrugged and ignored her. It was her choice, she was comfortable with going in the buff, and it really made sense. However, she donned her loincloth before contacting the village. The conversation was short, maybe just one or two minutes, and it was all in the Greystokian language. Greystokian and Hawaiian are part of the same sub-family of the Polynesian language family, but Maori isn’t related to them enough for John to understand them.

 When the conversation on was over, she stood up and pointed at Kimi. “You’re coming to the village with me,,” Julie said.

“Why?” Kimi looked up from the Tumblr page she was looking at.

“It’s so you can be safe,” said Julie. “I don’t want you getting in danger like you did earlier.”

“Oh,” Kimi said without objection.

“What did you say to them?” John asked.

“We’re leaving soon,” Julie said while putting her top back on. “Manti said Pua’s in the Village right now.”

“Want me to drive you there?”

“Sure,” said Julie.

“What about Kai?” John asked.

“He’ll be fine,” she said. “He can handle himself out there.”

“Ah, of course,” said John, “The so-called ‘Tarzan’s successor’.”

“You don’t really believe that, do you?” Julie laughed.

“There’s only one Tarzan and he’s a product of a racist, colonialist period,” said John. “Plus, he’s fictional.”

“Can’t argue with that,” said Julie. “But Kaitan isn’t racist, colonialist and he’s real.”

“Beside the point, don’t you have somewhere to go?” John asked.

“Fine,” Julie sighed. “You want to go now, Kimi?”

“Sure,” said the teenager, and spoken like a true teenager. She got up and adjusted the kapa-and-straw outfit she was wearing.

“I’ll drive,” said John.

He drove the two young women to the research camp first. There they picked Gina up, since she was probably going to need to find out what the hell was going on, too. But when they stopped,mother noticed that she was very irritated, too. They couldn’t figure out for the life of them why she was irritated. A quick glance showed that Kyle’s Aunt Brenda was busy minding her own business, sipping tea next to her husband. Hardly the thing of irritation, but Gina must have been suffering from something,

“Stomach ache,” she said, rubbing her stomach. “I must’ve forgotten to have my probiotics or something.”

“Eat something better,,” said Julie.

Gina just groaned and plopped down in the seat next to John. Since he’s a man, he’ll never know what it’s like to have a period, so he didn't say anything. He did pat Gina’s shoulder in a purely friendly manner to help her feel better. The Kiwi woman nodded to thank him.

“By the way, where’s Kaitan?” she asked.

“He needs some space to be alone,” said Julie. “Don’t worry, we're not breaking. That’s a pretty shitty reason, anyway.”

“Ah,” said Gina. “I think I know why.” She glanced over to Aunt Brenda.

John didn’t pay attention and just restarted the car.

The Teo capital seaside village was not on the beach, but adjacent to it. The slightly-crescent-shaped village straddled a small, weaving, meandering stream that flowed out to the salty ocean, but gave plenty of fresh water for the villagers to drink. Huts dotted the landscape. Small farming fields tended to by locals extended out north of the huts. The villagers obviously grew their crops here, and little irrigation channels streaked through like blood vessels.

But this is also a fishing village. There was a small “port” at the mouth of the river and at the beach, with a couple of fishing boats coming in and out, carrying their loads for the day. There was so much fish that the smell of all of it mixed with the smell of the salty water and could be smelt from a great distance away. In fact, John knew they were getting close when he caught the first hint of the scent. “What’s the name of that stupid toucan cereal mascot?” John asked.

“Toucan Sam?” Julie replied.

“Well, in his words, we’ll follow our noses!” Julie groaned and rolled her eyes.

They stopped on the outskirts of the eastern part of the village. Julie and Kimi immediately hopped out of the car and ran into some excited village girls. As they kept Julie’s attention on them, someone wearing a tiki mask crept up behind her. It wasn’t until it was too late that the person made a horrifying sound right behind Julie, scaring the Californian into turning around, only to face a laughing woman around her age.

“Don’t scare me like that, Lilo!” she said.

“But you should’ve seen your face!” Lilo laughed. Lilo, is of course, Julie’s best friend among the Teo. She kicked the ground with her bare feet and laughed a little more. “Huli, cousin, laugh a little!”

“I almost had a heart attack,” Julie growled.

“You’re no fun,” said Lilo. “By the way, PLEASE don’t tell Hana I’m playing with the masks I’m making.”

“How many times do I have to tell you to stay away from her!?” Julie stage whispered.

“It’s a small village!” Lilo replied. “How am I supposed to stay away from her? Wait, what’s wrong?”

“Things haven’t been good since the Island Games,” Julie replied. “Kaitan’s paleface aunt is here and she wants him to come home. On top of that, he’s angsting.”

“I’d be in a bad mood, too,” Lilo said while she crossed her arms. “By the way, some of my little friends are waiting for your next science class.”

“I’m here to see the Chief,” said Julie. “Maybe not today.”

“They will be disappointed,” said Lilo.

“I know!” Julie whined. “And I wanted to see their experiments, too!”

“Can I come with you to the Chief’s hut, though?” Lilo asked. “I mean, he might be mad at me, but—”

“Lilo, relax!” said Julie. “Of course you can!”

“Thank you so much! But why do YOU, an outsider, get to talk to him?”

“IIIIIIII… dunno.” Lilo didn’t get to ask more, because Julie walked away as fast as she could walk. Eve when she followed her, she wouldn’t talk. It was more annoying, if anything.

The Chief’s hut was in the middle of the village, and elevated higher than every other hut. Chief Manti sat on the front porch, talking to Kame as the group walked up to him. “Ah, hello—where is Kaitan?”

“He needs some alone time,” said Julie. “By the way, can Lilo come in?”

“Nothing has ever stopped her before,” he said. Lilo reacted by pumping her fist.

“I didn’t know I could just do that,” she whispered to Julie.

Once inside, they sat down in a semi-circle with their legs crossed. Kame moved to the center of the semicircle, but kept his back against the wall while laying out his materials. He ground a few plants and added them to some water, while preparing a few other things. Then he turned around and faced the wall. After a few minutes, Pua and Manti entered the room. Pua sat down with his back against the wall while Manti stayed standing, at least for the time being. Tim stood up and waited for the Chief so he could begin translating. “Pua,” he said, “Are you ready?”

The independent villager nodded. “Of course,” he said. “I have never been hypnotized before.”

“Kame will make sure nothing goes wrong,” said Manti. “Kame?”

The kahuna nodded and quickly got to work.

Hypnosis is not what it is in fiction. This wasn’t mind control one bit, it was in fact closer to your usual hypnotherapy. Kame gave Pua a small drug to help him relax. He then started chanting rhythmically while making a rhythm with the drums and giving the occasional induction instructions. Before long, Kame pulled out a pendulum tied on a swing and began swinging it in front of Pua’s eyes. The combination of the drug, the drumming, Kame’s easy-going deep-breathing instructions and the pendulum soon began to affect Pua, as he slowly, but surely closed his eyes and entered the hypnotic trance. But he sat still and although he was in a trance, he looked very receptive.

“Wow,” Gina whispered. “That’s pretty good.”

“Now then, Pua, can you hear me?” Kame asked.

“Yes, I can,” he said in a calm, relaxed voice, nothing like the ‘Yeeesss maaassssteeeerrrr’ monotone you see in movies or bad Kaa fanarts.

“Good,” said Kame. “Now then, I want you to take me back to the day those people raided your village. Specifically, afterwards.”

“I do not remember much,” he said. “I must have been out for a while.”

“I figured as much,” Kame said to himself. “What was the last thing your really remember?”

“I saw a paleman,” Pua said.

“What did he look like?”

“I only caught a glimpse of his face,” said Pua. “But his hair was dark, like Kaitan’s.”

“That doesn’t help much,” said Julie.

“Admittedly, my hypnotism is far from perfect,” said Kame. “But I would rather ask the right questions. Pua, what did this man do to you?”

“He made me drink something. After that, I went black.” He strained a little more. “I may have woken up.”

“Try to remember,” Kame said. “What happened next?”

“I saw a Paea man,” he said. “He said his name was Pauahi.”

Kame smiled ever-so-slightly. “Now we have a connection,” he said. “What did he say?”

“He told me Kaitan killed his brother.”

“WHAT!?”

“Hulk, remain calm. Remember, there are two sides to every story; perhaps this Pauahi sees things differently. Pua, did he tell you what happened?”

“No,” Pua replied. “I asked, but he refused to answer.”

“We’re back to square one!” Gina hissed once Pua’s answer was translated.

“What did the paleman want?” Kame asked.

“He wanted Kaitan,” said Pua. “Said he knew him.”

“Huli?” Manti asked.

“I have an idea of whom he’s talking about,” she said, “But I can’t prove it. In fact, it’s probably just a wild guess.”

“It is alright, Huli,” said Manti. “I do not want the village going after random palefaces. Even WITH our mutual friendship, some of my people still do not trust them.”

“Like Hana,” said Julie.

“Unfortunately,” said Lilo.

“See what else you can do, Kame,” said Manti. “Is it possible he knows more?”

“I can ask,” said Kame. “Pua, what did it feel like?”

“I felt like I was dead, but awake,” he said.

“That’s oddly specific,” said Julie.

“But I was in a nightmare. I had to do everything they told me, with no—AAH!” Pua instantly bolted out of the trance. Kame and Lilo rushed to help him out, but he collapsed on the wooden floorboards. While Julie also got up to help, John and Gina struggled to comprehend what was going on.

“What just happened!?” Gina sputtered.

“I said my hypnosis is imperfect,” Kame admitted. “I must have accidentally unlocked a traumatic memory. Pua, please, calm down. You are with friends now.”

It took a few minutes of encouragement, some deep breaths and a drink of the relaxing tonic before Pua finally calmed down again.

“Huli,” said Kame, “You mentioned a ‘tompee’?”

“A what?”

“A TOMPEE,” Kame insisted, making Julie think for a moment before she realized what he was talking about.

“OH, a zombie!” she said.

“Tompee?” Lilo asked.

“No, a ZOM-BIE,” Julie replied. “Go like this, ZZZZZ!”

“TTTT,”

“Try again.”

“TSTTSTS,”

“Put your tongue against your teeth,” she said. Lilo did that. “Now go, ZZZZZZZ.”

“SSSZZSZZZZZZZZ!”

“That’s it!” Julie said. “Now, harden the P.”

“Puh-puh-puh, Buh,” Lilo went, several times before she finally got the hang of it.

“There you go!” Julie said. “Now try it!”

“Sombie!”

“Close enough,” she said. She understood that Greystokian, which is pretty much the Hawaiian language, did not have a “Z” or a “B” sound. This is common with other languages around the world; for example, East Asian languages typically do not have an “L” sound, which results in the infamous “rangurage” sound.

“Enough with the linguistics!” Gina said. “What do you mean, a ‘Zombie’, Julie? Did something bite him?”

“No,” said Julie. “I mean the old, Haitian version. Think the movie ‘The Serpent and the Rainbow’.”

“Oh, that Wes Craven movie?” John asked.

“Bingo!” Julie replied.

“Huli, what is this about?” Manti asked.

“To put it simply, a ‘zombie’ is a corpse that’s been brought back from the dead,” said Julie. “It originated in Haiti during the time the African population on the island was enslaved. The zombie is brought back to life by a hoodoo practitioner—I refuse to say vodun, since it’s a real religion—and made to serve the master without question.”

“That sounds… terrifying,” said Manti.

“It’s the only thing I can think of,” said Julie. “I think I heard somewhere that zombification is illegal in Haiti, so it’s definitely plausible that this is the work of a white guy.”

“Do you know anyone?” Manti asked.

“No,” said Julie. “I’m about as lost as you are.”


	9. Chapter 9

Gina and John went back to the camp after the hypnosis session. Julie and Kimi stayed behind to visit with their adopted fellow tribespeople. Admittedly, neither one could really wrap their heads around the fact that they were official members of a tribe. Perhaps Western and Far Eastern civilizations are so separated from humanity’s tribal roots that Going Native/Tribal is an indescribable thrill. Must be one of the reasons Kaitan decided to stay.

NOT counting people being made honorary members of a tribe or some white dude becoming a registered member of a Native American/First Nations tribe. That’s something else entirely. We’re talking about the real, tribal society deal here.

Whatever.

Julie did try to ring Kai up on the radio, but didn’t get an answer. Eventually, she gave up and agreed to have them send a hawk to the treehouse to deliver her note. The hawk came back after half an hour without the note. That’s actually good, because the hawk was supposed to deliver it like a mail hawk (ba dum, tsh!).

But Julie was doubtlessly worried about Kai. He would’ve liked the roast piggie the tribe shared for the informal feast.

New that he was doing fine, relatively speaking, and he was. In some little corner of the jungle, he’d killed a wild chicken, plucked its feathers, put it on a spit and cooked it. Kind of like the countless nights he spent before, killing whatever he could get his hands on just to survive. Unfortunately for Julie, those bad memories were making him consider going back to civilization. At least he’d get a good meal, quality healthcare and a chance to finally watch the Jets.

Kings fan Julie though, wasn’t too crazy about going back to Cali.

You probably know where this is going.

For now though, Julie’s concerns were focused on Pua’s description of his ordeal. She tried to focus on something else, like the stories Kame told, but it wasn’t working out like she’d hoped. She’d look back over at the indie villager every now and then, only to be pulled back by Lilo.

In an attempt to get her focus away from them, she looked over at Hana, whom she felt must have been making some kind of scheme against Pua. She narrowed her eyes at the tribal elder and wondered what she was up to.

However, this put a strain on Lilo, who only wanted to see her friend laughing. So, in spite of her own dignity, she grabbed some Spirit Water, drank a good deal of it, got up, shed her clothes and danced wildly around the bonfire. Julie was just as bewildered as the rest of the village was, but soon, she was hopped up on Spirit Water and dancing nakedly with some of the other twenty-something villagers. Kai was going to miss out on this, but it was his loss.

Lilo’s efforts worked in the end. Julie was too busy dancing nakedly, hopped up on a hallucinogenic drug to care about the stress she was dealing with, and about the stares. She also didn’t care that she was white girl dancing, either.

When they were finished, Julie helped Lilo stumble back to her hut with clothes in hand and Lilo yammering excitedly about how awesome getting naked was. The stunned expressions on everyone’s faces made her feel empowered, that she was in control of who she was. She knew she’d get an earful from Hana tomorrow morning, but Lilo didn’t care. Julie even congratulated her, and asked what she was going to do next.

“I don’t know,” she said as she laid down on her little hammock. “Maybe I’ll just go to sleep.”

Julie shrugged and climbed into another hammock next to Lilo’s.

She didn’t know what transpired next.

Gina and John got back to the camp just a little bit after nightfall. The weekly bonfire was raging, with the other researchers gathered around to cook hot dogs, marshmallows and whatever you could think of. Even mangoes. Yes, people actually grill mangoes. That aside, the research team was still feeling loose, despite, or in spite of, the drama gripping the island.

Gina went into her tent, pulled out her Jack bottle and sat down with half a glass full of the stuff. John got up from his seat and sat next to her, so that he could keep an eye on her. She took a deep breath, sighed and took another gulp of the stuff.

Across from the, a researcher from Julie’s Alma Mater UCLA got up and walk over to them. When he sat down next to them, he asked, “So what’d you find out?”

“Pua said here was a white man involved,” she said.

“What’s he doing?” The other researcher asked, “Trying to scare off the natives, start a war or something like that to get at the natural resources?”

“Perfect! Now all we have to do is find out who the man under the mask is,” said John. Gina facepalmed.

“And how are they doing this?” The UCLA researcher asked.

“Zombies,” Gina laughed. “Or that’s what Julie thinks.”

The researcher scoffed. “This story’s getting worse every day,” he said. “What’s next? Monkey-men?”

A man walking by caught wind of their conversation. He moved closer, but stayed a fair distance away. “We don’t even know where to start,” said Gina. “We don’t know anyone who could be into hoodoo.”

“Wouldn’t anyone bitten by those zombies turn into them?”

“If that was the case, all the Island Games victims would have been turned by now and MSF would have their hands even fuller,” said John.

“MSF always has their hands full,” said Gina. “But who would be making zombies? Nobody in the camp even has an astral zombie, much less a voodoo do—”

The snapping twig, while always a bit contrived, caught their attention. For a second. But that second that John looked back at to catch a shadowed figure panicking and running away was enough. “OI!” John got up from his seat and chased the figure down. He was on him in seconds, tackling him hard to the ground. The figure struggled against him, kicking him in the chest and getting back up.

He ran towards Gina and the UCLA researcher, dodging their lunges before grabbing Gina’s Jack bottle. Then, he took off.

“MY JACK!” Gina cried and gave chase. She looked around for several minutes, until she found the figure dousing a tent with the Jack. “No, no, NO!” she shouted.

She couldn’t stop the figure from lighting the tent on fire. The tent burst into a large fireball, its light blinding Gina for a second. The figure ran away in the midst of the fiery eruption.

“DAMN!” she shouted.

The researchers promptly got to their feet, grabbed some water and began dousing the tent as quickly as possible. A few of them grabbed fire extinguishers, despite the fact that this was a rather large fire that had already consumed most of the tent. And Gina seethed in her spot, knowing full well that the little bit of chaos was more than enough for the guy to escape. And with the researchers consumed (heh) with the fire, whomever it was could escape.

Luckily, John had other plans. “OI! You! Spread out to find the perpetrator!” he shouted to another guard. Several men with guns and night-vision broke away, then spread out to find the perpetrator.

The fire was out in 10 minutes. The researchers stood around it, thoroughly confounded at the smoldering ashes. Very little had actually survived, just a few books, electronics and the zipper for the sleeping bag. Also, bits of the tent poles stuck up in bent and twisted angles.

Kyle’s Aunt Brenda stood next to Gina, with Brett next to her, took. “Goodness!” she said. “There’s nothing left!”

“I know,” said Gina.

“My tent!” Brett moaned. He knelt down and picked up a charred book that turned to dust. “What did I do to deserve this?”

“I don’t know,” said Gina. “Why’d he go after your tent?”

“I don’t know,” said Brett. “Maybe it was a random decision or something?”

“Maybe,” said John.

“Do you have anyone looking for them?” Brenda asked.

“Of course,” said John. “We should find something, soon.”

“LIEUTENANT!” A pair of the guards ran back up to John. “We spotted him in the jungle. But he escaped.”

“Damn! How could you let him go!?”

“He went into a rather thick part of the brush,” said the guard. “We tried, but we forgot our machete.”

“Did he look familiar?” John asked.

“You mean you think it’s Kaitan?” the guard asked. “I can say for certain that wasn’t him. He went northeast, away from the treehouse and the Teo village.”

“Nice of you to cover all the bases,” said Gina. “Get some rest, we’ll figure this out in the morning.”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Lilo was embarrassed at her antics the previous night, and showed it. When she got up, she promptly put her clothes back on and ran into Julie’s hut, where the Californian was sleeping, still naked. “What was I thinking!?” she stage-whispered.

“You were trying to have fun?” Julie asked.

The Teo woman of Julie’s age sighed and rolled her eyes. She didn’t say anything else. Julie’s sarcastic manner of speaking didn’t deserve a response. The dumb, naked outsider stood up, grabbed her outfit and walked outside. White people were strange, she noted to herself.

No one really noticed, or cared, that Julie stayed naked while she ate breakfast with the tribe. It did help that she wasn’t the only person in a state of comparative undress. A few women sat around the mats with their bosoms out, sagging from the work of motherhood—a badge of pride for these women. Ask them whether they should care, especially in the face of a Puritan western worldview, and they’ll laugh in your face.

And yes, no one, especially not the men, gave a rat’s ass.

The only person even slightly uncomfortable with it—and for good reason—was Kimi. However, she’d also accepted that this too, was part of Julie’s white girl eccentricity.

It also gave Hana something to say. “Nude again, Huli?”

“Yeah, so?”

“I heard the one behind the Island Games attack was a paleman like you.”

That didn't take long. While Julie didn’t look up from her breakfast, Manti did. And he wasn’t happy. “What does that have to do with anything?” he asked. “First, how did you hear? And second, what does it matter? Huli, Kaitan and Kimi are one of us now. Your attempts to drive a wedge between the tribe will not work.”

“Kaitan’s aunt is here, correct?” Hana asked. Her ostensibly-racist question made Julie’s eyes look up. “Honestly, I am glad she is here. Kaitan needs to go home.”

“Hana!” Kame interrupted.

Julie was still busy eating breakfast and thinking when they heard a car driving up behind them. Most of the Teo ignored it, as did Julie and Kimi. They all focused on breakfast, except for Julie and Kimi, because they noticed Gina walking up behind the both of them.

“Gina? What are you doing here?” Kimi asked.

“Kaitan’s uncle’s tent burned down last night,” said Gina.

“That’s oddly specific,” said Julie.

“Look, we are completely stumped,” said Gina. “Remember that story you wrote about the Monkey Witch? You wrote yourself into a corner?”

“Oh, right,” said Julie.

“Well, it’s kind of like that, but we suspect either of them might be responsible,” Gina finished.

“Wait, what?”

“We don’t have any evidence, but it’s likely Kaitan’s aunt and uncle burned down his tent to hide evidence.”

“Look,” Julie said, “I really want to believe you, but… even if Kyle’s aunt is a bitch in some way, you can’t accuse her of doing something like that.”

“I know,” said Gina. “We’re just desperate for leads. MSF can’t even track the saliva in those bite marks—I didn’t know you shaved down there.”

“FOCUS,” said Julie.

“Forget it. Do you want to come back to the camp for a few minutes?”

“Sure,” said Julie.

“And put your ‘standard-issue’ outfit back on, please.”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

They had a surprise waiting for them at the camp. When Julie stepped out, she saw Brenda and Brett sitting at the table in the middle of camp with a young man in a T-shirt and cargo shorts. Her suspicions were confirmed when the young man turned around to look at her. “Hi, Julie,” he said.

“Kai?” she asked. “Um, what are you doing here?”

He stood up and walked over to her, wearing a blue Winnipeg Blue Bombers shirt that had a surprising slimming effect on him, and once again reminded her that he’s not a big beefcake like a lot of Tarzan images, or the dudes in her uncle’s gay porn collection (said uncle is openly gay, BTW). Her first reaction was to look away from him, rub her tattoo (right) arm, bite her lips and the insides of her cheek and look down at the outfit she was wearing. It made her blush. She did see that he was still barefoot, though.

“I was talking to Aunt Brenda and Uncle Brett,” he said. “I’m thinking about going back.”

Her heart sank. She looked up at him. “You’re shitting me, right?”

“No,” he said.

Now it got worse for her. “Why?”

“I was thinking,” he said. “When I went out last night, I hunted my dinner and I had to make a shelter for the night. I was reminded of the early days; I had to hunt and scrap for anything I could eat or sleep, and I almost died until I got the hang of this whole survival thing. And because of that—and I also remembered this one time I failed to save someone—I’m not sure if I want to stay here anymore.”

“But, but—”

“I haven’t decided yet,” he said. “But maybe, I’m done being Tarzan.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, while trying to keep her poker face in check.

“I said, I don’t know,” he said. He sat down. “What is my home?”

“It’s where your butt rests?” she asked.

“Can you not quote ‘The Lion King’?”

“I guess you don’t want the snark,” she said. “Well, if you ask me, I think you should stay. I mean, I really love it here—“

“You love it here?” he asked. “Isn’t this about _my_ dilemma?”

“Well don’t blame me, I like it here!” she said. “And I want to stay!”

“And what about me?” he replied. “Don’t I get a say in my own future? I’m not going to decide to stay just because you like it here, that’s pretty selfish of you!”

“SELFISH!? Listen, Kyle, you’re the one who ran away from a conversation about Aunt Brenda, not me! I had to go and talk to Pua to find out what this Pauahi guy wants from you, and you dare to call ME selfish!?”

“What!?”

“You heard me! Why don’t you look in a mirror before calling me selfish for being concerned for you!”

“Because you want to keep playing jungle girl!” he shouted back. She recoiled. “You want to know WHY I’m thinking about going back!? I might just be happier in The ‘Peg, and since my uncle’s tent burned down, I’m concerned for him!”

“He might have done it himself!” Julie replied. “I mean, we can’t prove it, but what if he did?”

“Worry about that later,” said Kyle.

“Okay, but why would you even want to go back to Winnipeg?” she asked. “Isn’t it cold up there?”

“Yeah, but it’s perfect outdoor hockey weather,” he said wistfully. “I just remembered my favorite Christmas present was a pair of ice skates. I wasn’t very good at hockey, but as your average Canadian boy, I was so excited.”

“Oh,” said Julie.

“And my mom had some Tim’s after we would skate,” he continued. “Have you tried Tim’s? It’s the best!”

“Tim’s?”

“Tim Horton’s,” he said. “You know how you talked about In-N-Out Burger all the time? It’s kind of like that for us Canadians.”

“Ooooooohhhhh!” Julie said. “Oh wait, NOW I remember! They put their logo on hockey boards, right?”

“Yeah,” said Kyle. “And… I miss my friends.”

“Do you know what happened to them?” Julie asked.

“No,” said Kyle. “Barry McDavid, last I heard, moved to Edmonton to work for the Eskimos. But, I could always make new friends. I did it here, after all. I just won’t be called an outsider by jerks.”

“Some people call you ‘monkey boy’,” she said.

“That I can handle,” he replied. “I just don’t know if I really belong here, or if I’m even worthy to be a hero.”

“Why DO you want to be a hero?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, I had the Tarzan books that my dad left, and I thought he was the coolest thing, and—oh Spirits, I’ve been playing Tarzan just like you!”

“Seriously?” she asked disingenuously. “That can’t be it.”

“I know you like it here,” he said again. “But I really don’t know what to do. I don’t even know if can tell the Teo about it—UGH!!! The Teo! What are they going to think?”

“You could tell them that you’re suffering a crisis?” she asked.

“Oh, Spirits,” Kyle breathed. “What am I going to do!?”

“I don’t know!” Julie insisted. She stood up, quite obviously tired of this stand-still conversation. However, before leaving the campsite, she turned to him. “I know I’m gonna sound selfish, but you need to ask yourself: Where do you belong, and where is home? And why would your Aunt Brenda come back for you when the Mounties are looking into your dad’s company?”

“Don’t make it any harder, please,” said Kyle. Julie shrugged and took Kimi with her, back into the brush.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

“If Kaitan is going to be leaving anyway, why are you insisting on going through with this, Pauahi?” Tito the Slayer asked as he, Pauahi and four other rather unpleasant fellows—three of which were white—sat around q small campfire, eating roasted pork and drinking coconut juice. Pauahi turned to Tito, his eyes blazing with rage.

“Revenge,” he said. “The ‘boss’ told me the plan was to get Kaitan off the island, I’m sorry, but I have WAY too much on him.”

One of the white men spoke up. “What DID Kaitan do to you?” he asked.

“He killed my brother,” said Pauahi. “A few years ago, before these other palefaces and his mate Huli arrived, my brother had led a successful raid on a village that attacked his and killed his friends. The raid took a few captives.”

“You mean slavery,” said Tito.

“They would have been treated better than how they treated us, but instead Kaitan intervened. He attacked the party, freed the captives and killed my brother. Well, not in that instant, but he left him weakened and died upon return to our village, where he told everyone what happened. When I confronted him at the Island games two moons later, he all but admitted it. And he acted like my brother was to blame!”

“The way I see it,” the other white man, who happened to be bald, said, “Kaitan had every right to stop them. For all we know, your brother may have even tried to kill him and he was killed in self-defense.”

“And another thing,” said Tito, “If we go through what you are planning, just by what the boss has told us, we could re-affirm his determination to stay on the island.”

“I will be sure not to make that mistake,” said Pauahi. “And as I was saying, he not only refused to take the blame for killing my brother, he used underhanded tactics to defeat me to win the Island Games championship. I know what you are going to say next, and that my priorities are skewed, but that is not the case. I want to kill Kaitan for killing my brother, first and foremost. I will take his mana and let my brother have it in the afterlife.”

“A lot of good that will do,” said the bald white man. “Revenge is one thing, and is best served cold, but what good will it do if you do kill him?”

“That paleface has deluded himself that he is a hero for far too long,” Pauahi replied. “The entire island is enabling it, letting his foreign superiority turn him into the wrong kind of folk hero. Instead of being seen as a man, which he is, he is not a foreign demi-god. How laughable! In order for the island to be rid of this curse, he must be shown to be human, and nothing else. I do not care if the boss does not like it. But the boss has his own plans. Let him raze every tree on the island with his foreign ‘magic’! I want to kill Kaitan, and this is how we will do it.”


	10. Captured

Julie and Kimi trekked the brush for an hour until they reached the treehouse. They both went in but came out after a few minutes carrying a bow, quiver, spear and fishing rod. Kimi descended to the ground first while Julie came second. With a quick gesture, she led Kimi to the east, back into the brush.

They were joined by Ginger the Cat, who bounded out of a brush, chasing a small lizard all the while. The cat stopped and ran over to Julie, who reached out to pet the cat, which was almost the size of a small dog, like a Beagle or a Sheltie. The cat purred like a domestic one, since it kind of looks like one to begin with, as Julie petted her.

As she kept her right hand out, she noticed the tattoo on her right arm; a sacred design signifying her membership of the Teo tribe, made by the traditional _kakau_ method. It _HURT_ , but the final result felt exhilaratingly gratifying. Even if she still got all sorts of ‘ _haloe_ ’, suspicion and hatred thrown at her, she felt as if she belonged to the tribe. And the possibility that her link to it might leave, made her sigh and drop down to a knee in dismay. She wondered if she only belonged in California.

Then she scoffed. This must be how many immigrants to America felt. She felt that she might never truly fit in, no matter how much she tried to assimilate. She wanted to make Greystoke home, but the homesickness for California was pretty strong. Perhaps that’s the ultimate struggle of the outsider.

She looked over at Kimi and wondered if she would ever be accepted. She probably would, since she has a genuinely sad backstory, whereas Julie has a loving family to go back to, and is quite possibly playing jungle girl.

“Are you alright?”

Julie had spaced out for a second and her gaze lingered on Kimi. The Japanese-Australian teen’s question jerked her back to her senses. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said.

“Liar,” said Kimi.

Julie didn’t bother to answer. Instead, she stood up, led Ginger away and into the brush. Kimi followed.

Armed with a spear, bow, arrows, knife, an extra canteen, some meat jerky, nuts, and a utility belt, they were ready for a day in the jungle. At least, that’s what they thought it would be, but that’s for later. For now, these two were going on a little hunting trip that would make the contestants on _Naked & Afraid_ envious.

The sun was shining, it was hot and humid. Julie and Kimi found some mud and put some on their skin to beat the sun and heat. The mud would cake at some point, and it would feel good on their bare skin.

It also helped Kimi start to feel a little wilder, or at least closer to her wild side. She got and fed the urge to climb up the trees and branches to act like a monkey. She was so very enthusiastic about it, jumping up and down, swinging, and deeply getting into character that Julie started to double over in laughter. She remarked to herself how much fun in the jungle Kimi was having, and temporarily forgot all about the the issues at hand.

“HEY! KIMI!” She called from the jungle floor. “HOW’S THE VIEW!?”

“LIKE I NEVER WANT TO LEAVE!!!” Kimi called back.

That innocent, yet unfortunate slip of the tongue undid Kimi’s efforts. The Japanese-Australian teen figured that out quickly when she saw Julie’s shoulders slumping and the American woman sitting down with Ginger sniffing her out.

Now the author knows this first-hand, because the author has had pet cats most of their life. But cats are generally good at sensing humans’ feelings, even in the case of this one particular wild cat. Said cat put one paw on Julie’s knee and reached out for her face. She only got the shoulder, but she leaned in and headbutted her sternum. And Julie rubbed her fingers on the cat’s body, letting her pet herself. She also didn’t notice Kimi sliding down the trees and walk upstairs to her until her shadow covered her.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“Kyle is thinking about leaving,” said Julie.

Kimi sighed in exasperation, sat down and put her chin in her hands. “I hate this part of jungle stories,” she said.

“So do I,” said Julie. “Aside from _George of the Jungle_ , it’s the worst part of the story.”

“So what’s gonna happen to me?” Kimi asked, her face and tone turning to worry. “I don’t want to go back to Australia.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I could help you stay with the Tribe or the researchers,” said Julie.

“You haven’t decided to go back, have you!?”

“NO!” she shouted. “Or—AH! DAMMIT!”

“You wanna stay, right?”

“Yeah, but, I like air conditioning and not having to hunt for my lunch,” said Julie. “But, even if that’s true, I’ve gotten so used to being here that I don’t know if I’d like civilization. There’s also the whole ‘playing jungle girl’ thing. Man, I don’t think ‘was a comic book stock character for two years’ fits well on a resume.”

“What’s a resume?”

“It’s how you get a job in the real world,” said Julie. She dug her toes into the dirt. She also slapped her face and slowly rubbed it hard to stretch it out. “Ugh, fuck my life.”

Kimi didn’t have anything else to say, so she sighed and fell on her back to look up through the tall trees at the clear blue sky. “Maybe I really am just playing jungle girl,” said Julie. “Honestly, I may have been more confused about this shit than I knew. I guess I’m just a transplant, though; I don’t know if I really belong here or I’m just staying because I have a boyfriend. God, what if I AM selfish!?” She continued on for several more minutes, but Kimi didn’t notice or care because she was ignoring her. “Are you even listening!?” Julie must have noticed.

“Not really,” Kimi replied, ignoring Julie’s subsequent muttering.

They didn’t have much to talk about beside that. Oh, they could talk about whether or not Julie wanted to go back, but that conversation would go nowhere. Unless… “Why do you want Kyle to stay?” Kimi asked.

“I think he fits in more here,” she replied. “I don’t know if he’d do well in civilization… I don’t know if _I’d_ do well I'm civilization. GRAH! He said I was being selfish when I said I wanted him to stay.”

“Why?”

“Because I said I didn’t want to go back,” she said. “Goddammit, I AM selfish. If he wants to go back, I can’t force him to stay. I love him too much to force him to do something he doesn't want to do.”

She kept on rambling for several minutes, as she was often want to do. Kimi and Ginger ignored her and played with each other instead. Several minutes must have passed before Julie finally stopped. But, even though she did stop, the worrying wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Suddenly and without warning, Ginger’s ears and head perked up. Kimi also perked up, but not before Julie. She’d hopped onto her feet and started sniffing the air in a second. Living in the jungle… and maybe some island magic or something… had helped strengthen Julie’s senses, although they were still nowhere near as strong as a cat’s sense of smell or hearing. Aside from that, though, it was obvious that something was wrong and Julie know it, causing Kimi to jump up as well.

They stayed quiet for several, seemingly-endless minutes. They just listened. Aside from the rustling of leaves in the wind or bugs or animals, they couldn’t hear anything. This could be either good or bad. But judging by Julie’s expression, it was quite obviously bad. Both women gripped their knives tightly.

“When I tell you to, run,” said Julie. “You know how to get to the treehouse, camp and village, right?”

“Right,” Kimi said, ignoring the deafening beating of her heart. She placed her sweaty right palm over her heart as if it was some futile attempt to calm her heart down.

Julie looked around, flexing her fingers and taking a series of very deep breaths. Despite her attempts at staying calm, she licked her lips as she looked around. Another sound. She let go of her knife and grabbed her bow with her just-as-sweaty palms. She nocked an arrow in the bowstring. A few primal instincts had already kicked in, and none of them were herd instincts; those stupid, irrational herd instincts that create stampedes out of perfectly calm and rational humans and/or animals and make even the sheepest of sheep embarrassed. No, these are the instincts of a hunter… who also happens to be hunted.

Something burst out of the brush. She turned and released her arrow. The humanoid figure jumped out of the way before her arrow hit it. “KIMI, RUN!!!”

Kimi took off as fast as she could. Julie punched her assailant before running off in the opposite direction Kimi went.

She got down on all fours like a cat as she ran through the jungle and up into the trees. But she didn’t get very far at first. Someone grabbed her ankle and yanked her down to the ground. For the first time, she finally got a view of her attackers. Both of them were natives to the island. One of them grit his teeth and seethed with rage at her. The other had the blankest, most inhuman expression she had ever seen. Just the sight of it made a ripple of goosebumps through her skin. She couldn’t quite describe it, but it was like looking into the eyes of a dead man. The body may be alive, but the eyes told otherwise.

She took a few ragged breaths as the man walked up to her. When he reached out, she blocked the man’s reach and kicked him right in the chest. The next man reached for her again. She blocked it and punched him in the jaw. Now that both men were down, she took off running in the same direction she was going and finally ran up into the trees.

She hurried through the leaves and across the branches, looking back and/or down on sporadic intervals to see if she was still being pursued. As far as she could tell, judging by a few blips of color in her vision, they were. It just made her sprint faster.

She ran like a cat, swung like a monkey, or just ran like a person. Her heart pounded, her breath quickened, and her skin slicked with sweat. She almost slipped a couple times, on a combination of her slick skin, the moss, the bark, or combination of all of them. Each time she almost slipped, her stomach found its way into her throat. To her relief, she didn’t fall once.

An unknowable amount of time passed. As far as she could tell, it was still close to noon, since the sun was still peeking out in between the foliage.

She felt the need to stop somewhere near… well, she didn’t know where it was! All that mattered was that she was tired and needed to stop somewhere, and it happened to be a tree branch overlooking a small break in the ground foliage. She pressed herself against the branch and looked out through the leaves at the small clearing.

But her heavy, shallow breathing was making too much noise, and the mud on her skin had started to drip off thanks to the sweat. Her heart was also racing faster and louder than an Indy Car, doubtlessly making the camouflage harder. She took several deep breaths to calm herself, heart and breathing as she heard her pursuers approaching. A quiet sigh escaped her lips. _I don’t have time to worry about it_ , she thought.

She watched her pursuers approaching from her left. She tried to listen to their conversation, but couldn’t hear much. So she silently crept closer to the two to get a better hear on them.

“… How could you lose her, you mindless beast!?” The mean-looking son of a bitch snapped, slapping his poor servant. He didn’t so much as blink, but Julie wanted to get down there and teach the bastard a lesson. “Pauahi won’t be happy. Neither will the boss, but you’d better worry about Pauahi. Damn _haole_ palefaces. What are you doing!? Get searching, you mindless slave!” He whacked the poor thing away, but stayed where he was.

The man with the dead, blank expression walked into the brush. Even his gait was wrong. He walked just fine, and he certainly didn’t look like a Romero zombie, he just looked _off_. He stopped about 10 feet into the brush, where he started turning in place as if he was on a turntable.

She couldn’t stop her heart from racing faster and her skin from getting goosebumps. The man got slowly closer to her tree. She quietly whispered, begging him not to look up. It was maybe a little counter-productive, though. And she rolled her eyes and cursed herself upon that realization.

Then the man looked up. And his eyes met hers for a brief second. She took in a quick breath through her nose as she felt the chill running down her spine again. She shrank backwards just an inch but stopped herself before she felt her foot slip subtly and almost snap a twig. She and the blank-faced man kept their respective gazes on each other for an apparently long time, or at least as how long as it felt. She couldn’t even stop herself from audibly gulping, which she cursed herself for doing again. But she didn’t try to move.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the man looked away. He looked around for a little more before he finally turned around and walked back into the small clearing to a very cross son of a bitch about to hurt him just for not finding her. She was certainly tempted to go down there right now beat the son of a bitch, but she had other things to worry about.

“Forget about her! We’ll get Kaitan ourselves!” he finally said after what seemed like a long, long time. Julie groaned. “Boss wants him for some reason. Something about outsider family stuff.”

 _NOW_ she was getting somewhere. Obviously this confirmed her bias, but confirmation bias is not something for a rational person to think like.

She waited and watched for a few more moments until the two goons finally left. She waited even longer before she finally decided she was out of the clear.

She jumped down to the ground, where she finally felt the urge to stretch and take a deep, loud sigh.

But something was watching her. And once she was out of the tree, the thing ran up to her. She turned around and her eyes widened in horror before it was upon her.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Kyle wasn’t thrilled at all.

So he must have felt that something didn’t sit quite right as he thought about going back, while having lunch with Aunt Brenda at the research camp. The urge to return to Winnipeg, while strong, also left something of a bad taste in his mouth. So while she excitedly talked about the possibility that he might come back, he tried to ignore it.

But it wasn’t easy, especially once Gina walked up to him, sitting around the campfire, sat down and stared at him until he finally noticed her.  She just quietly sat next to him for a couple of minutes, not saying anything, but staring at him curiously, which made him just the least bit uncomfortable. She wasn't saying anything, but her expression spoke volumes. And that is what got to Kyle in the end.

“What?” Kyle asked, his tone sounding like it was reserved for the pest at school or work then a friend.

“Oi,” Gina replied well putting her hands up in total innocence. “I am just curious about why you are in such a bad mood.”  

“I don’t know,” he side.

“You seem to be saying that a lot lately,” she replied.

“You noticed?” He replied.

“It’s written all over your face,” she replied. “Do you really want to go back to Winnipeg?”

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

“Of _course_ he wants to go back!” Kyle and Gina sighed, ignoring Aunt Brenda’s approaching shadow, but she forced herself in between the two. No escaping her now. Oh, he did try to get up, only to meet Gina’s piercing gaze that made him sit down. “Don’t you, Kyle?”

“I mean, I… guess? I dunno,” he said.

“Did you really think that was going to work?” Gina asked. “Kyle, really, do you want to go back to Winnipeg?”

“I’ve already said ‘I don’t know’ several times,” he said. “I mean, the Jets are back, and it’s where I was born, but…”

“You’re more interested in the Jets than the fact it’s where you’re from?” Gina asked. “You really ARE Canadian!”

Kyle sheepishly rolled his eyes and facepalmed, since that was about the only reaction he had.

“Sorry,” she said. “I couldn’t resist. Really, Kyle, you look so at home here. What’s there in Winnipeg for you?”

“It’s where I was born,” he said.

“Home isn’t just where you were born,” said Gina. “It’s where you make it. It’s where your heart is. It’s where your rump rests!” Kyle snorted this time. “I’m sorry, I sound like a wanker. I mean, it is _your_ decision. Do you belong here?”

“I keep getting called an outsider,” he replied, tugging on his cargo shorts and Blue Bombers t-shirt.

“That’s definitely a problem,” Gina admitted.

“I mean, my ‘friend’ Kulo keeps calling me that, but then he nudges my shoulder, and we laugh about it, and he’s helped me out a few times,” said Kyle. “I remember once we snuck a glimpse at his crush’s hut and we got in so much trouble, but it was worth it!”

“What’d you do?” Gina asked. Kyle got up and whispered in Gina’s ear. She in turn snorted and broke out in a loud guffaw. “Really!?”

“Really!” he said. “And when the Tribe made me one of their own, I just felt, so… I don’t know how to describe it.”

“Stop right there,” she said. “I’ve just seen your face. You looked so happy talking about it. But when you talk about Winnipeg, you’re unsure. I get that you might want to go back sometime, but maybe… you’re worried about making the wrong decision?”

“Oh, come now!” Aunt Brenda interrupted. “We all know he’s just playing Tarzan! After all, it’s just a colonialist fantasy for white people.”

“Never said that wasn’t true,” said Gina. “But why would he want to play Tarzan?”

“Yes, why WOULD you try to be a hero to people who don’t like you?” Aunt Brenda asked.

“Oh Spirits,” Kyle replied, rubbing his face and trying to think of something to say. “I don’t know.”

“Well, if you ask me, that’s a rather good question,” said Gina. “But I think it’s more of his reasoning. And I don’t think it’s so selfish. Tell me, Kyle, what have the people of the island done for you?”

“Called me an outsider and called me a wannabe?” he asked.

“Besides that,” she replied. “What _good_ things have they done for you?”

“They took me in,” he said. “I don’t even know why they did, but when I first washed ashore, they just let me stay with them, and they were so kind to me. They fed me, they taught me their ways, they accepted me as one of their own, and they helped me survive in the jungle. And when I first started helping people, I just…” He trailed off, with a little realization on his expression. Or at least considering realization, but nonetheless, he seemed to be deep in thought.

For her part, Gina smiled. “I mean, I’ve seen you in the jungle. You look happy, especially when you’re helping people. If I was you, I wouldn’t want to be some stogy pencil-pushing corporate zombie living a miserable life. There’s much better things to be doing.”

“Now you’re starting to lead him astray,” said Aunt Brenda.

“Am I?” Gina asked. “Because I’ve asked better questions than you have.”

Aunt Brenda huffed, puffed, got up and stormed off.

She found her way to Brett, who still brooded over his burned tent. She looked around several times until she finally sat down. “Honestly, that boy!” she huffed. “He’s thinking about staying!”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Brett. “He’ll come around eventually.”

“Why can’t you use your potion on him?”

“Not now!” he stage whispered. “Wait until he finally decides! He has to choose of his own volition. Besides, using the potion was _your_ idea, not mine. Also, I don’t have it with me! And stop talking like that, they might be listening to us!”

“The Mounties are spying on us, not them!”

Brett was actually right. One of the researchers leaned against a tent out of sight, trying to listen to them. He wrote a few things down, stopping every now and then to check on their conversation. He waited until Brenda finally stormed off. He smirked and ran over to John to hand the paper to him. “I’ll give this to Gina,” he said.

But as he walked off, he saw something coming out of the brush and enter the camp. It was just one man, but it didn’t look like much. So John ignored it for a little. But more figures emerged from the brush. Something was wrong. “GET THE GUNS!” he shouted right as the new figures attacked.

The screaming caught Kyle and Gina off guard. Even more surprising was when Gina pushed Kyle off the log surrounding the campfire and into the brush. “HEY!”

“HIDE!” she shouted. “RUN!” So he did. He didn’t know what came over him, but he let his legs carry him all the way, without even thinking. The screaming in the camp faded from his ears, but the ghastly sound of the screaming echoed in his mind for the entire time he ran. As much as he wanted to stop, he couldn’t. And as much as he wanted to understand, he came up blank. Why was this happening?

Just as confusing was the path he took. Before he knew it, he came to a stop when he felt the familiar, salty breeze of the sea on his face. His instincts had carried him to the Teo’s seaside village.

And it was completely empty.

He reached up with both hands and pulled on his hair. “What the hell is going on!?” he groaned.

Everything had gone so fast, and it was making his head spin. He needed to take some deep breaths, because this was starting to overwhelm him. It took a while, but he was finally able to calm down and gather his thoughts about what had just happened—someone had attacked the research camp and the Teo village, probably around the same time. That much he knew.

He thought he could start by examining the tracks in the sand.

There were a lot of tracks in the sand, which didn’t help much. So he got frustrated, but not too frustrated. But, he found something.

He was looking in the door of one hut when he found something lying on the floor. Upon examination—stringent examination—he found out it was a necklace, but he couldn’t recognize the pattern as belonging to the Teo.

“Okay, so what does that mean?” he said to himself. It was a puzzle. And he sat on the porch of Manti’s house, puzzling and puzzling until his puzzler was puzzed.

He tossed the thing aside when he got frustrated enough and—of course! He forgot to sniff it. As embarrassed as he felt, at least he wasn’t smelling something worse.

The smell was just as unfamiliar. Which made him pump his fist. He had a lead! He sniffed around, looking for the trail until he found it leading to the north. So he followed it. And it wasn’t long before he found a trail of footprints in the mud. He pumped his fist. A scent and a trail weren’t much, but they were enough. And he was off once he gathered some weapons and supplies.

In the meantime, a small nimbus cloud flew over the treehouse.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

“You HAD to take the boss, Pauahi,” Tito the Slayer hissed right in the other’s ear, almost throwing spit into it.

The man in question sat still next to the ruin’s central hearth, still staring into the fire with his arms crossed and brows furrowed. He did not answer Tito. He just stared at the fire. “I don’t care,” he said. “I don’t care if boss is angry. I’m going to get Kaitan.”

One of the white men sighed, shook his head and said, “But the boss had things going well. Kaitan was going to leave. Now we’re all but certain to have him come after us.”

“Good!” Pauahi snapped. “I’ll kill him myself!”

“That’s not what the boss wants and you know it!” said Tito. “Even worse, he’ll be angry at us, and you do NOT want Kaitan to be angry.”

“He won’t have to know,” said Pauahi. “We will simply take care of her before he gets here.” He strode several paces over to a barred room, shook and kicked the bars. The figure on the bed got up and hissed like a cat. “Just like a beast. You don’t have to be bait, but you’ll do.”

Julie walked up to the bars and glared at Pauahi.


	11. Chapter 11

The trail was easier to follow than Kyle feared. The footprints were relatively fresh, maybe laid down a couple of hours ago. Wherever they headed may not have been very far away, either. The trail implied somewhere at least close to the research camp, as in an hour away by foot. He smiled. He wouldn’t take long to find it, maybe less than an hour, if he was lucky, he knew his way around the jungle, and he would certainly find his way around. Even better if he could lure them—

He stopped for a moment. The jungle was still calling to him… Okay, not literally, but the same way Sinatra said Chicago was calling him on in his famous song. So he cursed that stupid part of his brain that wanted to stay in its comfort zone.

But he kept on going. Soon, the overbearing jungle heat made him remove his shoes and socks so he could carry them. Going barefoot helped a lot, and he started running a faster pace and covered more ground than he did with his shoes on. He was also tempted to take his shirt off, but one does not remove a Blue Bombers shirt and toss it aside like cheap trash.

It wasn’t long before he reached the treehouse. Upon entering the clearing, he scratched his head with a puzzled look, but that changed when he thrust his hand. “Oh right, my stuff,” he thought out loud.

He stepped forward and then stopped. The two deer steed he and Julie rode were still there, perfectly calm and content to munch on some of the grass at the base of the tree. He sighed, His face filled with relief. Now he jogged up to the base of the tree, and with the shoes on his shoulders, climbed up the rope ladder to the porch. Wait... why was the rope ladder already down?

Already he felt the desperation. Who was looking for him? He climbed the ladder at a quicker pace, stumbled as he got to the porch, realized the door was open, and ran in. “COME OUT!” He shouted in Greystokian. “I’m warning you, I’m—” A man wearing traditional Greystokian clothing stumbled into the parlor, looking rather beat up, sweaty and exhausted. But he smiled and lightly laughed upon the sight of Kyle, and the Canadian did the same.

“Kaitan!” Hilo exclaimed. “You’re alright!”

“Hilo!” Kyle sighed. “You’re okay! What’re you doing in my treehouse?”

“I was looking for you!” Hilo replied. The Teo lieutenant ran up to Kyle and hugged him before breaking away. “Are you aware the seaside village was attacked?”

“Yeah, I do,” said Kyle. “I was following some tracks from the seaside Teo village. I’m not sure where they lead, but I have a good idea what’s at the end of them.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think whomever attacked the village and the researchers might be hiding in the jungle somewhere. Probably in one of those abandoned structures that make for good hide-outs.”

“So are you going there for a fight?” Hilo asked.

“Yes and no,” Kyle replied. “But you haven’t answered my question, what are you doing here?”

“The moment they attacked, Chief Manti told me to run so that I may warn others,” said Hilo. I did not see much of what happened, but I am most certainly thankful to the Gods that I ran into you.”

“Well, I’m glad I ran into you, too,” Kyle replied. “But right now, we have MORE IMPORTANT things to worry about!”

“Like Julie?”

“Julie can handle herself just fine,” said Kyle. “She can get her way out of any trouble she’s in. But seriously, we need to get serious.” He noticed that Hilo was already bleeding. So he ushered the Teo lieutenant upstairs into the bedroom. Once there, he took the first aid kid and applied some Neosporin and a bandage to Hilo’s arm.

“Thank you, old friend,” said Hilo. “By the way, WHY are you wearing that shirt? And do you think someone who know is behind this?”

“Right, but I have the strange feeling this is connected to the attack on the Island Games,” said Kyle. “I don’t know for certain, of course.” He explained everything he knew to Hilo—except for the stuff Hilo already knew—as best he could until he got to the part about his aunt and uncle.

“So yeah, my aunt and uncle want me to come home to Winnipeg, so…” said Kyle. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

The Teo lieutenant tilted his head had a quizzical look on his face. It only annoyed Kyle a little more, making him clench his fist even tighter. “Wait, so… what?”

“It’s kind of why I’m wearing this shirt,” said Kyle. “Besides, the loincloth looks kinda silly.

“Then take it off!” said Hilo. “You are KAITAN. The outfit, as silly as it looks, is your signature! And you are not Kaitan if you do not wear that!”

“I got more important things to worry about!” Kyle replied. “I NEED TO SAVE THEM!!!!”

“Just like you need to save people?” Hilo asked.

“What does that even mean!?”

“Spirits, Huli complains about the so-called ‘white-savior complex’ and I think she has a point. But, you are Kaitan, not…”

“Kyle.”

“Kyle. Come on, if you’re leaving, then why don’t you have one last moment of glory in the old outfit?”

“One last moment?” Kyle asked. He turned at the loincloth hanging by the doorway. He licked his lips and bit his bottom one, looking back between the loincloth, Sun, the outside and back again. He tugged on his shirt, looking down at the Blue Bombers logo. He noticed how slim he really looked in that shirt, but that loincloth was mighty tempting…

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Kaitan said as he ran alongside the trail with Hilo following closely, now wearing his standard-issue loincloth.

“Nah, you wanted to do it,” said Hilo. “You should’ve seen yourself tearing your clothes off!”

“That sounds dirtier than it really was!” Kaitan replied. “Why did I agree to take him along?”

Hilo kept running, scowling, and pretending he didn’t hear that.

They ran for several minutes in the thick brush and intense heat. Sweat began to glisten on Kaitan’s skin (you’re welcome, straight/bi/pan ladies and gay/bi/pan dudes) as he ran. Hil. didn’t seem bothered by the heat, but he was a little more used to it than Kaitan, drawing glares from the Jungle Dude. Said Jungle Dude also kept his focus on the trail with a stoic expression, or at least an expression that hid the inner turmoil that could be a potential distraction.

They eventually came to a part of the trail where they lost the footprints, or at least they seemed to lose them. Though Sun already moved to do it, Kaitan dropped to the ground to sniff the scent of the trail. With nothing to do, Hilo crossed his arms and stood by to watch his friend, whom he’d also taught, picking up the trail.

“One of the trails goes off that way,” he finally said. “But I can smell a stronger one going that way.” He pointed to the right. “I think that’s the way they went.”

Hilo knelt down to examine the tracks, the one going off to the left first and then the one going to the right. Smiling, he looked up at Kaitan. “Perfect!” he said.

But Kai had already stopped to take a drink of water from the canteen he brought from the treehouse. Hilo patiently waited until the Jungle Dude stopped and put the cap back on.

“You know I want to become Chief someday,” said Hilo. “Although, I’m not sure if I can live up to Manti’s legacy.”

“Well, you don’t have to live up to Manti’s exact legacy,” said Kaitan. “Everyone has to carve out their own legacy, whether it’s their parents’ legacy, a friend’s legacy, or a mentor’s legacy.”

“Ah yes, I remember my father telling me about that after I told him I wanted to be Chief,” said Hilo. “He also said I had to be born into a chiefly line, but neither was Manti. I left the household and joined Manti’s inner circle for that reason. Speaking of which, why do you want to go back to the land of the palefaces? I thought you were happy here!”

“I _told_ you,” Kaitan replied. “My aunt and uncle are back and—”

“Is that it?” Hilo. asked. “You’re going back just because your aunt wants you back?”

“Um, well…”

“Okay, that’s a bad reason to turn your back on the island,” said Hilo. “After everything the Tribe did for you, you’re just going to turn your back and abandon us!? You’d be dead if it wasn’t for us!”

“I’m NOT turning by back on anything!” he shot back. “I’m tired of being called an outsider every damn week even though I work my ass off to help people!”

“And why DO you help people!?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” Kaitan replied. “I guess I’m just trying to fulfill my stupid white-savior complex or play Tarzan. FUCK! Now I have to live up to a fictional character’s legacy! And EVERYONE loved him, the escaped jerk, unlike me. Sometimes I wonder why I do this. Should I worry?”

“But you don’t have to!”

“You really think so?”

“Yeah! Of course a lot of people don’t like you, but they’re allowed to not like you.”

“Yeah, but it just gets to me,” said Kai. “I don’t even know WHY I do it. I guess it’s because trouble just tends to find me.”

“Oh yeah,” said Hilo. “Listen, to be honest, sometimes I hate your palefaced _guts_. You’re an arrogant wannabe with a white-savior complex befitting the heir of a product of paleman colonialist thinking. Maybe that’s one reason why they come after you.”

“That Pauahi fellow said he knew me,” said Kai. “I don’t remember him, but I think you’ve got a point. And if your point’s wrong, you’ve got some explaining to do.”

“Sorry,” said Hilo.

“But… I really don’t know why I’m doing this hero stuff,” Kai replied. “I wanted to be like Tarzan? I don’t know.”

“I wish I could answer,” said Hilo.

“That’s not your question to answer,” said Kai. Laying against the tree, he crossed his arms and looked up at the sky. “I remember I was so amazed at the tribe’s kindness towards me. I just wanted to repay them after everything they did for me and taught me, accepted me as one of their own, helped me become a part of the island, make it home for me and—why are you looking at me like that?”

Hilo’s silent, wide-eyed, but knowing expression kind of unnerved Kaitan. “What is it? What do you think?”

“I think you just answered your own question,” said Hilo.

“What?” This caused the Teo lieutenant to loudly growl in frustration, which seemed to cause a twig to snap and a man to cry out angrily.

“SHIT! They found us!” Kaitan gasped, dropping to the ground behind some bushes and Hilo. following pat. They could see someone prowling through the brush, armed with a spear, no doubt looking for them. By staying quiet himself, Kai could hear the man’s breathing, and along with the look in his eyes, could tell this wasn’t the zombies Julie had mentioned earlier.

“I knew I heard Kaitan’s voice,” he said.

“Tito the Slayer,” Kaitan whispered so quietly that a mere human couldn’t hear him, but Hilo, who was centimeters away from him, could. The Jungle Dude quietly drew his knife, but didn’t lunge out for Tito at first, but watched him instead. He licked his lips as he felt the wild instincts he’d built up over the years take over, and he became a wild animal in human skin. Surprisingly, he felt the most comfortable like this. Whatever it was, he was ready.

He lunged out from the bush and attacked Tito. Turning around, the hunter didn’t have any time to stop the Wild Dude lunge and knock him to the ground. The two men wrestled for several short and tense moments until Kaitan finally got the upper hand, lifting Tito onto his shoulders and body slamming him to the dirt. The dazed villain groaned while Kaitan and Hilo tied him up.

Since he wasn’t concussed, Tito came to just moments later to find his worst nightmare imagined. “Hi, Tito,” said Kaitan. “Looking for me?” Tito’s frustrated growl confirmed it. “Alright, listen up. I’m gonna need you to do two things for me. One, you’re going to tell me what’s going on. Two, you’re going to lead us to your base. Now, we were already following some tracks leading in this direction, so it doesn’t matter if you say ‘no’ to the second part. But I’m in a pretty bad mood and I want some answers, eh?”

“I hate you, Kaitan,” said Tito. “And Hilo, the slave of Chief Manti.”

“Thanks!” said Kai. “But if you want to start shit with me, I’ve got plenty of time. I don’t know where Huli is, but just so you know, she can keep control of any situation. Now then, who’s your boss?”

“I’m not telling you!” Tito spat.  Kai shoved his knife up to Tito’s neck. “Two palemen! They never told me their names, but the man knows how to turn people into mindless slaves. He has them working on clearing part of the forest where our base is, and he wants to clear the entire jungle. I don’t care what he does, I just want a shot at you!”

“Well, you got me,” said Kai. “Who else is with you?”

“Pauahi,” said Tito. “He wants to kill you.”

“I KNOW,” said Kai. “Why?”

“You killed his brother!” Tito replied.

“I’ve probably killed a few brothers,” said Kai. “You’ll have to be specific.”

“Ask him!” Tito replied. “It was his brother! Oh, and he claims you used underhanded tactics to defeat him in the last Island Games wrestling final.”

“Oh, THAT Pauahi!” Kaitan replied. “I remember that! Sounds like he’s projecting his frustration on to me.”

“Definitely,” said Hilo.

“Is that all you want?” Tito asked.

“How is your boss turning people into mindless slaves?” Kaitan asked.

“I don’t know,” said Tito. “He said he learned it in a place called ‘Haiti’.”

“Haiti?”

“Island in the Caribbean, Hilo,” said Kaitan. “Poor as dirt, not a nice place to live. Why would they use mindless slaves?”

“Because they’re easier to control, obviously,” said Tito.

“Good point,” said Kaitan. “Does your boss want something from me?”

“He wants YOU,” said Tito. “Did not explain why.”

“Then we’ll have to ask him ourselves,” Kaitan said as he pulled the Slayer up onto his feet. “Time for you to take us there.”

“Are you sure you’re not worried about your mate, Jungle Boy?”

“Like I said, I wouldn’t worry about her,” said Kai. “She can handle herself.”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Julie snarled and snapped at her captors like a wild beast. Her hands were tied behind her back, and they had a collar around her neck. One of the captors pulled on that collar, causing her to bark in a high-pitched voice like a puppy. One of them even smacked her cheek and she looked at him with a vicious, feral look in her eyes.

“This one’s gone wild,” said one of the captors. “She’s nothing but a beast in human skin.”

“Obviously,” said another voice. Pauahi walked up to her, took her chin in his hands and smiled at her. She tried to bite him. He wouldn’t give her the pleasure, instead clicking his tongue and wagging his finger. “Something about this is making me aroused. TIE HER TO THE STEAK!”

Her captors dragged her over to a steak embedded in the middle of the floor in the center of the ruined temple in the middle of a beam of sunlight.

“JULIE KILL!” she growled.

“The little palefaced savage is nothing but an animal now,” he gloated.

“WHO YOU!?”

“My name’s Pauahi,” he said. “And I am the one who will kill your precious mate.” Julie lashed out again. Pauahi laughed. Cupping her chin, he looked into her eyes in a predatory manner. “The boss doesn’t want me to do anything with you. Personally, I have a few things in mind, but that’s for later. For now, I just want Kaitan.”

“WHY!?”

“He killed my brother. A few years ago, my brother was a part of a war party returning from a successful raid on an enemy village. They had already taken captives, as is part of the rules here, when Kaitan attacked them. He should have learned by now that taking captives is part of the tradition on our island, but I suppose Manti got to him.

“Anyway, he not only stopped them from reaching home, he stabbed my brother, who lived long enough to get home so he could inform us what happened and who killed him. I swore vengeance upon that day.

“I had my chance at the last Island Games, when he and I met in the final of the fighting tournament. I tried to kill him, but he used an illegal move on me for the win. And as he gloated in my face, I tried to confront him about my brother. He did not remember!

“So for my brother, I am going to kill you when he gets here, right in front of him, and then I am going to kill him!”

“You are NOT going to kill him, Pauahi!”

Pauahi cringed and sighed before turning around at his angry boss, Uncle Brett. The Canadian man, followed by Aunt Brenda marched up to the pair, but confronted Pauahi first. “Hello, Mr. Nelson,” he said in his native Greystokian. “For what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Don’t play games with me, Pauahi,” Brett replied in Greystokian as well. A quick confused expression appeared on Julie’s face, but only for a split second before she went back to snarling and gnashing her teeth. “Kidnapping us wasn’t part of the plan. And thanks to you, Kyle’s probably not going to come back with us.”

“NO HURT KAITAN! NO HURT KAITAN!” Julie snarled, thrashing about again.

“UGH, she’s gone full jungle girl,” Brenda sighed. “And I thought she was intelligent! Ugh, she’s just a babbling animal in human clothing now.” Julie lashed out at her, but the binds on her wrist kept her in place at the steak. “I really hope you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking Pauahi.”

“I am not,” said Pauahi.

“I don’t believe you,” she said. “But, since we’re dealing with a mere, uncivilized animal, I guess we can spill the beans.”

“Not sure if that’s a good idea, Brenda,” said Brett.

“Oh hush now,” said Brenda. “Obviously, I missed Kyle, but now that the Mounties are after our company for corruption—I have to hand it to you, you’re very smart for a snarling beast—we had to cover our tracks. So what better way than to make it look like our beloved nephew was in charge of the company? The poor boy has no business sense, and smells like urine. Of course they’d drop the charges! Or, better yet, they charge HIM and we run all the way here and set up shop in this new land of opportunity. A whole island just for us to cut down every single tree! I love capitalism!

“Oh, and thanks to Brett’s knowledge of zombie powder, we have free workers! They do whatever we want them to do like good little children!” While she did notice Pauahi cringing, she ignored it. “Hm, I wonder what we can do with you? Perhaps we could zombify you just like I hoped to do with Kyle, but what good is a mental headcase like her? TAKE HER AWAY!”

Pauahi groaned and undid the binds holding Julie to the steak. She tried to lash out at the now-departing Brett and Brenda, only to have her hair pulled by a predatory-looking Pauahi. With his hand on her collar, he led her down the hall, past some locked-up Teo tribespeople and researchers to the cell she shared with Kimi.

Once he undid the collar and binds, he shoved Julie back into the cell. Kimi lay on the floor, in an apparent catatonic state. Pauahi glared at the snarling Julie and licked his lips. He taunted her to run up to the bars and reach out to grab him. But he backed off before she could reach him.

He laughed. “What a sad sack,” he said. “Don’t worry about you, I’ll come by and tame you later. Like what should happen to jungle girls like you.”

Walking away, he thought about the things he planned to do to her when he got back.

Julie stayed put at the bars, snarling like a/the Tasmanian Devil until Pauahi was out of earshot and eyesight. Then she turned around with her back against the bars. Then she smirked.

And started laughing.

Starting lowly, her laughter built up until she was doing a full-blown good-guy version of an evil laugh. Upon hearing this, Kimi blinked and sat up, her expression excited. “What’d you get out of them?”

“EVERYTHING!” she laughed. “AUNT BRENDA’S A FUCKING MORON! She just spilled the beans about her plans right in front of me! She was just yammering, monologuing! SPIRITS, she’s smart, but she’s so stupid!”

“Blimey!” Kimi laughed. “I can’t believe you pulled that off!”

“I just had to pretend to be Taz and in peril-slash-at their mercy and their guard would drop,” Julie said with a wink. “I was in control the whole time!”

“So now what?”

“Now, we wait,” said Julie. “Kyle’s probably on his way. Once it’s obvious he’s here, we’ll get out of here.”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

“You know we probably have better tracking skills than you do, right?” Kaitan asked. “Not a good idea to pull the stunt you just tried, because otherwise we could just leave you to the kitty-cats.”

“He’s asking for it”, Hilo smirked. “At least your only injury was a wounded ego.”

Tito grumbled while scratching part of his back that itched, or at least the part he could reach from the binds around his wrists. They were still in the jungle, but Hilo thought they were getting closer to Tito’s base or whatever. Just in case, he kept a spear point in the middle of Tito’s back. He didn’t care if Tito kept complaining about the spearpoint. In fact, it was probably a good thing.

The sight of a clearing almost made Kai and Hilo go quicker, but the need to stay calm overruled this excitement. Soon, they reached the edge of the clearing to find one of the many stone ruins dotting the island, evidence that there had once been a civilization here before the Polynesians arrived. Was it the Inca? The Olmecs? Someone from Southeast Asia? There wasn’t enough archaeological evidence at this point, so don’t expect an answer.

Hilo grabbed Tito by the top of his head and shoved him down to the ground, with Kai following. Several guards were walking and talking about, apparently half-paying attention and half not. But, judging by the way they looked up and out at the jungle every now and then, it wouldn’t be a very good idea to try and sneak or storm in.

“Great,” said Kaitan. “How are we going to get in?”

“You could always lure them into the jungle and beat them up there,” said Hilo.

“Yeah, but Julie’s probably using her head. I want to do the same,” he said.

“Whatever you say,” said Hilo.

“Are you sure that’s going to work?” Kaitan asked. “I don’t want a yes man.”

“Listen, Kai,” said Hilo. “I already know you’re worried about getting in. And yes, it doesn’t look easy. But you are _KAITAN_ and you are AWESOME. I know for certain you can do it.”

“Kaitan is a paper predator,” Tito scoffed. Hilo shook his head at Tito.

“Did I tell you not to listen to him? He is taunting you.”

“Actually, I think I have a better idea,” said Kaitan. “I think there’s a great way for you to air your grievances with me, Hilo.”

“If you are doing what I think you are doing, why not use me?” Tito asked.

“Because it is obvious you will not cooperate,” Hilo said before stuffing some twine into Tito’s mouth. He took some more rope and bound Kaitan’s wrists up, but neither too tight nor with an over-complicated knot. Then he stood Kaitan up and shoved him into the clearing.

“Come on, you pale-faced scumbag!” Hilo snarled as he pushed Kaitan into the clearing, instantly catching the attention of the guards.

“You traitor!” Kaitan replied. “I thought we were friends!”

“I hated you from the very beginning,” said Hilo. He pushed Kaitan up to the gathering guards. “I lured him here. I heard you were looking for him.”

“The boss is,” said one of the guards. “I’m sure Pauahi will definitely be happy to see him.”

“When I get out of this, I’m going too—”

“Move it, you white bastard!” Hilo said, shoving Kai towards the entrance. He spouted a string of obscenities and insults that left the guards stunned until they were well out of earshot.

But he stopped once they were inside. Then, he removed the binds around Kai’s wrists. “Alright, let’s do this!” Hilo said.


	12. Chapter 12

Kai and Hilo were in. They drew their weapons, examined them and began to walk down the hall when Hilo smacked his head, remembering that they had to keep Kaitan looking captured until they were ready to spring the counterattack. They didn’t need to do much besides keeping Kai’s arms behind his back until they were ready to kick some ass.

The darkened tunnel led to a light at the end, which itself led out into a larger, cut-out-of-rock inner plaza/atrium in the middle of the ruins. Men and women who looked rather disreputable mulled about, preparing weapons and tactics for what looked like some coming attack. It was likely that, if Pauahi had not gone all Leeroy Jenkins and attacked the research camp and Teo village, this could be a large attack force, at least that’s the possible conclusion that both Kai and Hilo silently came to.

Their suspicions were furthered at the sight of several people lined up in a phalanx-like formation, standing perfectly still and straight as if at attention. But they gave off a disturbing atmosphere just from their mere appearance. These must be the zombies Julie and Tito were talking about. One of them was tied to a steak in the middle of the atrium (the same one Julie was tied to).

Feeling a chill running down his spine and up his skin, Hilo shuddered and rubbed his arms. “There is something dead about them,” he whispered. He cringed when he saw the poor soul tied to the steak get whipped by a rather cruel-looking individual.

To stop himself from looking at them, Kai looked up at the ceiling. It may have been about 20 feet high, and there was a good-sized hole in the middle shining down on the steak in the middle. The walls were covered in vines and ivy, with places to climb and swing from as if it was built just for him to do his jungle boy thing. What luck!

“We have to find our brethren first,” Hilo whispered. “I doubt you and I can fight them all on our own.”

“I already called for help,” Kai replied.

“Your monkey friends?” Hilo sighed. “Listen, we have to rescue our brethren, anyhow. If you have any better ideas besides the stupid monkeys, I would love to hear it.”

“I’m a nature hero. It’s part of the deal!” Kaitan hissed.

“Even so, we still have to rescue them! No questions! Kame could cure these poor fellows.”

“I know, I KNOW!” Kai hissed under his breath.

His hiss was a little too loud, and it caught a disreputable man’s attention. His expression turned into rage. He stomped over to Kai, clearly intending to harm him, until Hilo roughly grabbed his hair and wrists. “ _I_ found him!” he declared. “ _You_ keep your hands off my catch!”

“Don’t pull my hair, traitor!” Kaitan hissed.

“I want to kill him myself!” the disreputable man growled.

“He’s MINE!” Hilo growled through gritted teeth. “I captured him! _I_ get the reward!”

“You sound way too into character,” Kai said under his breath.

Hilo pushed him towards the center of the room, hoping to get through. But, more and more of the disreputable fellows and women noticed him and began to gather around the increasingly-nervous Jungle Dude. They shouted insults, slurs and curses at him, all of a high degree of vitriol that not even Hilo could think of duplicating. The two of them did their best to ignore these miscreants and focused on the task at hand.

“I did not expect this,” Hilo whispered. “What did you do to them?”

“I don’t remember,” said Kai. “Um, I’m sorry, everyone! I thought I could play hero like the white saviour-wannabe I am, and I pissed way too many people off. Totally worth it!”

“Nice,” Hilo snickered.

“But unfortunately, I can’t stay for very long, so I’ll have to leave… NOW!”

Hilo let go of Kaitan’s wrists and the Jungle Dude held his hands up. The first person closest to him lunged for him, but he punched the man square in the jaw. Behind him, Hilo grabbed his war club and whacked the very first person that came up to him.

The Jungle Dude raised his hands up, cupped them and called to the jungle before unleashing a mighty Jungle Cry that sent chills down the spines of all the miscreants in the old temple. When he was finished, he looked at them all with an intense, wild glare best reserved for the worst enemies he’s ever faced—kind of fitting, since everyone here who wants to kill him might just be his worst enemy.

He beat his chest in a show of masculine machismo and shouted for them to come for him. He even did a _ha’a_. “Do we really look that silly?” Hilo asked himself.

Silly or not, Hilo did much of the same. By the end, both men were bulging their eyes and sticking their tongues out at the enemies. While it didn’t do much for intimidation, the enemies accepted their challenge and came at them.

Even though they were both surrounded and obviously outnumbered, Hilo and Kaitan easily fought them off. The Jungle Dude gave some of them a couple Attitude Adjustments, F5s and RKOs while the Teo lieutenant slashed with his shark-toothed weapons.

The Lieutenant pushed his way towards the stake in the middle, where the prisoner was being held tied up. Upon cutting the ropes, he was surprised to see that the prisoner didn’t so much as move an inch. Only when he pushed the prisoner off of the stake, did he realize that the rumors were true.

He most certainly needed Kame’s help now.

But the Hero of the Jungle didn’t seem to need it. Making his way to the wall, he vaulted off it, grabbed a vine and swung to the stake where he landed on the top. He cupped his hands to his mouth and called to the jungle again before forward-flipping onto the ground, crouching and striking out at the enemies surrounding him.

He shifted into a monkey-like stance. But he was still surrounded by angry-looking bad-doers. Not a good situation.

That is, until tens of monkeys flooded in from the ceiling, attacking the bad-doers surrounding Kai. The Jungle Dude knowingly smiled, before punching a bad guy, picking him up and delivering a hard F5 that knocked the poor bastard out. But that wasn’t the end of it. He ran over to the walk again, grabbed another vine and swung, kicking and knocking the disoriented and disorganized enemies this way and that, all the while avoiding the poor zombified schmucks.

Julie and Kimi’s cell was in some out-of-the-way hallway, but within hearing distance of the chaos unfolding in the entrance. Julie picked the sounds up, sat up and ran up to the bars to get a better listen. Kimi also got up to listen.

Another sound, this one coming from their left, caught their attention. It was the sound of a man complaining and hurrying to get out of the tunnel. An idea popped in Julie’s head. She immediately started snarling and gnashing her teeth as the man got closer to them. The bearded white man stopped in his tracks and went back to laugh at Julie, who reached out to grab him through the bars. But he stood at a safe enough distance from her grasp.

“Oh, keep trying,” he said condescendingly. He bent over to chuckle at her seemingly-strained expression, as if her mind was so far gone down the savage, feral end, her efforts were out of desperation. To add onto it, he held the keys up and jingled them in front of her. She lashed out, making more Taz/Tasmanian Devil sounds, and these made him laugh a little more.

But as he got closer, he didn’t see her reaching out for his shirt collar he felt her grab it. He only had a split second to realize, and when he did, his smile dropped and eyes widened, while her feral snarl turned into a mischievous smirk.

“PSYCH!!!”

His head loudly banged against the metal bars, even though she didn’t do it THAT hard. When he went down, she grabbed the keys from his hand and unlocked the cell door.

“HEY-YO!!!” Kimi cheered.

“Yoinks, AND AWAY!” Julie cheered as well, picking her stuff up from the ground near the man’s groaning form. Just to be sure, she kicked him in the back before she and Kimi took off, no doubt trying to find Kaitan and/or any of the other tribespeople.

The melee and chaos sounds soon reached Aunt Brenda’s surprisingly stylish office. Her desk was strewn with papers, books and pencils, evidence that they had been there for some time. Uncle Brett was giving Pauahi a good talking to, and Pauahi wasn’t in a particularly good mood. He looked like a teenager riding out his parents’ unending and unnecessary lecture when he heard the sounds of the fight going on outside. “I don’t care who you’re with, just do as we—what are you doing?”

“Do you two hear that?” he interrupted. He stopped and listened. A sinister grin spread on his lips as he realized what was going on. “Kaitan’s here!”

“Then bring him to us!” Brenda shouted, getting out of her chair.

“At this point, you’ll be lucky if he wants to talk to you,” said Pauahi. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a wannabe ‘jungle hero’ to kill!” He raced out of the makeshift office before Brett and Brenda had a chance to stop him.

“Well, at least he’s here,” said Brenda.

The Jungle Dude was a bit busy having fun, though. He was climbing, swinging and parkour-ing around the chamber. He kept his enemies busy while Hilo looked for a way to free the zombified slaves to no avail. They stood still in place, hardly blinking and hardly even twitching. He looked behind him to see that the Jungle Dude was laughing all while fighting his enemies off with kicks, punches and blocks that Julie doubtlessly taught him.

“COME ON!” Kaitan taunted with a laugh.

“Kaitan!” Hilo called. “Do not get distracted! Come, we must find Kame!” He pushed through some of the zombies, even coming across a few familiar faces. Once he was through, he grabbed the Jungle Dude by the arm and led him to one of the corridors leading out of the entrance hall. The Jungle Dude did stopped and turn around, but only to fight off some of the enemies who were chasing them. Upon their defeat, he took off with Hilo.

The two raced down the dimly-lit corridor for several minutes until they reached a sharp left-turn at the end, almost making the both of them crash into the wall. But they managed to stay safe and pivoted at the right moment, albeit slipping and sliding at the end.

At that point, they heard the sound of two females arguing. Without even thinking, they kept racing the same way they were going until they turned a right corner and found Julie and Kimi debating about which way they should go at an intersection. Both of them argued with each other until Julie happened to catch Kaitan out of the corner of her eye. She was surprised at first, but that changed into relief and joy, upon which she tackled him in a tight hug.

“KYLE!” she screamed.

“Julie!?” he replied without even letting go. “What are you doing here!?”

“Shut up, Jungle Boy,” she said. “Just let me enjoy this.” She must have meant the bone-crushing hug they were currently in. But, even Kyle had to admit that he didn’t want to let go either. She smelled nice, and he had to admit that he was worried about her just as much as he knew she could handle herself.

When the hug ended, she stayed in his light embrace. “Okay, now to answer your question,” she said. “Yeah, I was captured. But, I managed to get out of trouble.”

“That’s my Julie,” he said proudly. “How?”

“Oh, made ‘em think I’d gone totally feral like an animal,” she replied.

“Nice,” he said.

“She must have outsmarted them in more ways than one,” Hilo added. “What did you do, Huli?”

“I found out their plans,” she said. “I made them think I was at their mercy, but I was the one in charge. They spilled EVERYTHING! Kai, your aunt and uncle are behind this. They ARE being investigated by the Mounties, and they want to bring you back so you can be their fall guy while they start a new business here, with the cheapest labor imaginable.”

Her intention was obvious. But even then, he stared at her in dumbfounded disbelief. He backed off her for a second as he put his hand to his forehead. Nobody asked him anything, but they let him ride this crisis out, or at least try to.

“You’re sure?” he asked.

“I heard it with my own ears,” she said. “And that Pauahi guy wants to kill you because you killed his brother.”

“Well, I do know about that,” said Kai.

“It’s fine and understandable why you don’t want to believe me,” she said. “But right now, we need to free the other prisoners.”

“Ah,” said Hilo. “We were looking for them as well. And since we came from that way,” he pointed behind them, “That way is not an option.”

“I’m surprised sound travels so easily in here,” said Julie. “Must be the acoustics or something.”

“We could hear you fighting,” said Kimi.

“I doubt there is much acoustics,” said Hilo. “There must be more corridors in this building. This is going to make things harder.”

“Then let’s go that way,” Kai said, pointing to his left, Julie’s right. Everyone nodded in agreement and took off down that corridor.

Their bare footfalls echoed in the stone corridor as they ran. Kai told them about the monkeys keeping the baddies busy in the main chamber, and that they weren’t sure how to cure the zombies.

They reached the end of the corridor and ran into more cells. These cells were full with prisoners, all of whom stood up at the sight of their rescuers. This was not going to be easy. The makeup of the cells was mixed; at least one cell had Teo, Paea and white prisoners. Julie removed the keys from her belt and took one off to use on the first cell door. It didn’t work. She tried a couple more until she freed some Paea tribespeople.

The quartet then split the keys amongst themselves so they could free the prisoners faster. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as quick as they hoped. Finding the right key for the right door was harder than it looked, since there were more keys than doors on the whole ring, and all the prisoners were getting impatient.

But the most important one, the one holding Kame, was opened second after Kimi found the right key for the door. Kame stepped out of the door, brushed himself off and smiled at Manti rather… intimately. Kimi decided it was none of her business, though, and pushed him towards Hilo.

“Bravo, little Kimi!” Hilo cheered. “Kame! We need your help to cure the people ‘tombified’.”

“ _Z_ ombified,” Julie replied. “Remember the tongue on the teeth!”

“Let us not worry about that for now,” said Kame. “I used salt the last time I had to cure a so-called ‘sombie’. Huli, did you bring salt?”

“I forgot.”

Kame cursed under his breath. “Does anyone have my salt?”

Manti called to him from another cell that Kai was busy opening. He tossed the bag of salt to Kame, giving him another intimate wink. No one else noticed this, even when Manti was finally freed from the cell.

Eventually, all the cells were opened.

“Kai’s got some of his monkey buddies distracting the bad guys,” said Julie. “We need to find his aunt and uncle now. They’re the one behind this.” She told them about how she tricked Brett and Brenda, making Kaitan smile proudly.

“Excellent!” Manti said. “Now, we have not a moment to lose! We must be leaving! BUT! Kaitan, Huli, Kimi, Hilo, you do what you were about to do. Kame, you already know what to do?”

“Of course!”

“Perfect!”

“Best of luck, Kame,” said Kai.

“You too,” he replied before turning back to the Jungle Dude. “I understand you want to go back to your homeland?”

“It’s… a possibility,” he replied.

“I just want you to know that I and Manti will respect your decision, no matter what it is,” said Kame. “However, if I may add my opinion, I will say that the island will not be as lively without you. No, you are not turning your back on us if you decide to go, but do keep us close to you. Also, I think you should stay, but that is your decision.”

“Take the lessons you have learned, Kaitan,” Manti said, placing his hand on Kai’s shoulder. “They will serve you well, even in your faraway land.”

“What lessons?” Hilo asked. “He has not learned anything this week!”

“In his life,” Manti replied. “I just want you to know that it has been an honor having you on this island.”

“Thank you, Manti,” said Kai. They all nodded before Manti led Kame and their people out of the small jail.

“Let’s get going!” Julie interjected.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Pauahi had expected to find Kaitan still fighting in the main hall, but was surprised to see a troop of monkeys making life difficult for the mercenaries they had hired, but not the slaves. He sighed through his nose, grabbed his hair and pulled on it until it hurt too much. He watched the idiots continue to deal with the smaller animals before he finally had enough and rushed to the middle of the hall, whereupon he hooted and hollered, scaring the monkeys away until they finally ran out of the hall. He looked around with embarrassment in his eyes, until he finally said,

“GET UP!” He kicked one of the men. “Where did Kaitan go?”

“Down one of those corridors!” a man said as he nursed some monkey scratches.

“You need to have those looked at,” said Pauahi. “My other boss can take care of them.”

“Who?”

“Never mind,” said Pauahi. He pointed and called to some of the zombies. “FOLLOW ME! We have someone to catch! Oh, and get some of the slaves out of here before the Teo _Kahuna_ has a chance to cure them!”

He bid some of the zombies to follow him, and they did, right as a few zombies were taken away and Teo warriors emerged from the corridor, led by Manti and Kame, who began doing his thing to cure the zombies.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

The quartet had ran up against little to no resistance, mostly wandering zombies that were easy to get around because they seemed to barely even be aware of anything going on. On the odd occasion they did look at them, however, that same cold feeling of looking a walking dead person in the eyes made them stop in their tracks until they finally went around them.

They were also finding it hard to actually find their way around.

“Well, whomever built this place must’ve wanted only True Believers to find their way around,” Julie remarked as she looked at the masonry in the corridor.

“I think it is time you finally used your nose, Kaitan,” said Hilo.

“I HAVE been using my nose,” Kai replied, eliciting groans from everyone else. “Well don’t blame me! There’s a lot of scents in here! I think there’s some mangoes that way!”

“Were you trying to make a joke?” Julie asked.

“I was trying to lighten the mood, and I’m kind of hungry,” he said.

“Focus, Jungle Boy,” said Hilo.

“Well, if you can smell specific scents, then you can certainly smell what we’re looking for,” said Julie.

The Jungle Dude reluctantly sniffed the air again. After hesitating for a couple of seconds, he pointed down one end of the hall and said, “I think I smell something familiar in that direction.”

“Kai,” Julie said softly, “If for any reason, you find something that upsets you, I just want you to know that I’m sorry.”

“Let us just find out what it is first,” Hilo interjected, grabbing the Jungle Dude’s left arm and dragging him along down the hallway, Julie and Kimi not too close behind.

They went for several more minutes until they found a soft glow at the end of the hallway getting brighter and brighter until they emerged into a room resembling and office; with books, maps, lamps, a desk, and two very surprised Canadians with wide open eyes and mouths staring back at them.

“I told you,” Julie said.

“Aunt Brenda?” The Jungle Dude asked after stumbling for a couple of seconds.

“Kyle!?”

Both of them stared at each other for several long, silent moments. Kyle tried to move his open jaw to speak, but faltered each time. It was the same with Brenda, who looked back between the equally-shocked Brett and her nephew in a silly loincloth. But, if you want to know who was more shocked, disappointed and why, it would have to be Kyle/Kaitan, and his hurt-looking expression showed it. He looked between her, the map of Greystoke with the logging sites and the hoodoo material all about the room, and even in Brett’s hands and back.

He took a deep breath and lowered his head. Julie gently laid her hand and head on his shoulder, a move he seemed to appreciate by taking her hand with his. Hilo didn’t say much else, but he patted his friend on the back. Kimi didn’t have much to say.

But, Brenda looked back between Kai and Brett. A couple of shocked sounds escaped her throat until she finally screamed. “I TOLD THAT GIRL EVERYTHIIIIINNNNNNGGGG!!!”

Julie responded by blowing a raspberry and flipping her off. “Julie no like being called stupid!” she said. “Julie had you in pocket whole time!” This meant the highest of Fives from a now-proud Kaitan, Hilo and Kimi.

“Aunt Brenda, Uncle Brett,” Kaitan said, “I’ve been thinking about your offer to take control of the company, and I respectfully _DECLINE_.”

This made Aunt Brenda growl and seethe with rage. She clenched her fist and teeth, banged the desk angrily and shouted, “FINE! This is what I get for having a nephew who thinks he’s fucking TARZAN!”

“I’m KAITAN! THE AWESOME HERO OF THE JUNGLE!!!” Kai replied. “Dang, that sounded natural.”

“Puh! Why would you want to stay here, anyway? I’ve heard alllll about you! Mr. Outsider!”

“So? I’d be just as much an outsider if I moved back to the ‘Peg!”

“Oh, you’re just like your father! You won’t even admit your past mistakes!”

“Just give up, Brenda!” Julie threatened, taking her knife out. “The Mounties want to talk to you.”

“And let you testify against me? I think not!”

“Does it look like you’re going anywhere?” Kimi asked.

“Look behind you!”

At that moment, someone reached around Kai’s neck and put him in a chokehold. Kai tried to get out of it and found himself face-to-face with Pauahi. “Meet Pauahi,” said Brett.

“We already met at the Island Games twice before,” said Pauahi. “You killed my brother, Kaitan!”

“I’m sorry for what I did, but I don’t remember him!” Kai replied as he got out of the chokehold and kicked Pauahi’s sternum. Brett and Brenda made their move to escape, but Julie, Hilo and Kimi all moved to block them. When Brett held the doll up, they all wondered what was going on until he stabbed the doll with a pin. Julie felt incredible pain in her chest, screamed and dropped to the floor. Brett and Brenda ran, but Kimi grabbed the doll from Brett and ripped the pin out of it. The pain left Julie immediately.

“WHAT ARE YOU WAITNG FOR!?” Kai shouted while struggling with Pauahi. They didn’t need any more encouragement and took off in hot pursuit.

Knowing that investigators will probably need all the evidence they could get and he could not afford to let the office be destroyed, Kai pulled Pauahi out of the office into the tight confines of the corridor. When he was sure they were both free from the office, he socked Pauahi dead in the jaw, pushed the dazed enemy off of him and beat his chest in such a testosterone-fueled manner, Julie was bound to mock him for it.

But it did get Pauahi’s attention back, and the enemy charged at him like an angry wild boar. Kai braced himself and caught Pauahi, grappled with him and pushed him away again. Pauahi’s frustrated expression was more than enough for Kai to smirk and gestured to ‘bring it’. Pauahi threw a punch at the Jungle Dude, only for him to catch the arm with both of his arms and kicked at Pauahi’s knee. Usually it would have been harder, but it was still enough to bring Pauahi down in a bit of pain.

But Pauahi countered, also kicking at Kaitan’s knee to bring the Jungle Dude down. Pauahi angrily threw a punch, but Kai twisted and leapt out of Pauahi’s grip, landing in a monkey-like stance and stuck his tongue out, first in the way Westerners would be familiar with, and then with bulging eyes. But his body was drawn in close. Pauahi lunged at Kaitan, and the Jungle Dude quickly struck out at Pauahi, grabbing his arm, pulled him in and flipped him onto the dirt-covered floor of the corridor.

“COME ON!” Kaitan shouted. “You also said I beat you unfairly last time, right?”

“May the Gods toss you in the volcano!” Pauahi hissed as he got back up and lunged at Kaitan.

Concurrently, Julie, Hilo and Kimi were catching up to Brett and Brenda. The fugitives tried to escape a few times, taking a couple of sharp turns here and there, but the pursuers’ athleticism and quick turns kept them close. Brenda looked back every now and then, holding her high heels (something she regretted wearing instantly) to see the scantily-clad weirdos still in pursuit.

“WHY’D YOU HAVE TO DROP YOUR STUPID DOLL!?” she hollered.

“THEY TOOK IT FROM ME!” he replied. “And I’M NOT THAT GOOD!!!”

The corridor’s tight constraints and acoustics allowed the trio to hear them. And they were trying to hide their laughter from Brett and Brenda, who could probably hear them, too.

They eventually found their way into a larger room with a single exit at the other end, with an altar in the middle. It was pretty obvious what this was. Julie ran ahead of Kimi and Hilo. She jumped, vaulted off the altar, twisted and tumbled in midair and landed in a primal, cat-like stance with her fingers open like claws in front of Brett and Brenda. The two stopped and turned to see Hilo and Kimi cutting them off. Hilo shouted something in Greystokian.

“He told you to give up!” Julie translated. “In the name of the Teo Tribe, you’re under arrest!”

“I can understand him!” Brett snapped.

“Perfect!” Julie replied. However, she looked up and saw Kimi pointing at something. She was confused at first before she got the point and looked behind.

Zombies were coming up behind her. And leading them was the woman she fought in her Island Games debut. “Figures,” she said.

“HULI! Hold them off! Kimi and I will take care of the palefaces!

“Already on it!” Julie replied.

Hilo quickly wrapped both arms around Brett and Kimi grabbed and bound Brenda’s wrists with her hands. While those two worked on taking the Canadians down, Julie got to fighting with the Pele woman.

She caught Julie’s first punch and thrust her elbow into Julie’s elbow. But the Californian Jungle Woman bent her arm to move in closer and kneed her in the gut. The bigger woman let go. Julie spun, twisted and reverse roundhouse kicked her jaw, knocking her to the side. The zombified woman got back up with little effort. Julie then shifted her stance, back into the same cat-like stance, albeit with her fingers curled, matching the way anime characters tend to imitate cats.

When the woman lunged for her, Julie stood up, lashed out and landed a clean strike on the woman’s jaw. She then threw a multi-punch combo that knocked the woman clean unconscious. However, there were still more zombies coming. But since they weren’t the bite-turn-you-into-a-zombie type, Julie wasn’t as concerned as say, Rick Grimes would be.

But her strikes on the zombies were non-lethal. They could be cured. She wanted to keep them alive. So she knocked them aside, one-by-one, never moving from her spot at the door, as the zombies kept coming. Her knuckles soon began to bruise, but that never stopped her before. The zombies lay in heap next to her, all while Kimi and Hilo finished binding Brenda and Brett.

But a couple of zombies slipped through. Hilo noticed them instantly and got up to fight them. Despite sharing a rather brutal martial art, Lua, with their Hawaiian brethren, Hilo used his Greystokian Lua in a just-as-non-lethal way against the zombies. He took out the knees and legs of the three zombies that got close to him, but did not break their knees or legs.

Even Kimi got in on the act, punching a couple of zombies’ jaws, and reveling in her newfound strength.

But Julie finished this up as she repeatedly kicked a zombie that blocked her roundhouses, until she jumped, landed on her other foot and kicked the zombie in the chest. The Jungle Woman laughed and then finished up.

“Maybe next time you should bring stronger zombies,” Kimi quipped.

As for the rest, the Teo, researchers, Pele and Paea made quick work of the enemies in the main hall, and Kame did his thing to cure the zombified people. He threw salt, waved his _ti_ leaf and chanted in the midst of a great melee between the former prisoners and the enemies. One by one, the people who were victims of Brett’s zombification came out of their trances, shocked at where they were, and what had just happened.

Many of them thanked Kame personally, but he humbly told them that it was his duty as the main Kahuna of the Teo Confederation. He shared another proud glance with Manti, who reciprocated.

And yes, the monkeys helped, too.

And finally, Kaitan fought Pauahi hard. The two were locked in a grappling struggle on the ground, with Pauahi putting Kaitan in what we, in the West with our knowledge of a certain Bulgarian pro wrestler, an Accolade Lock. The Jungle Dude struggled to break out of the lock though, twisting and turning his body all around. But Pauahi’s grip was tight. And as he tried to snap Kaitan’s neck, his sneer turned sinister and he strained to finish the job.

But he finally slipped on Kai’s sweaty face. Kai pushed up, which pushed Pauahi off of him. He spun around to kick Pauahi’s sternum, knocking him down. Now Kai lifted Pauahi up onto his shoulders and dropped Pauahi to give him an Attitude Adjustment.

But Pauahi was not done. Instead, he got up and ran with the Jungle Dude in hot pursuit. They ran all the way through the corridors until Pauahi reached the main hall. But if he was hoping to get some help, his expression changed to realization. All of his comrades had been defeated.

And when he heard the Jungle Dude’s mighty cry, he only had enough time to spin around to see the Jungle Dude Spear him like Roman Reigns/tackle him like one of the Blue Bombers.

Then the Jungle Dude lifted Pauahi back on his shoulders and delivered a second Attitude Adjustment. As Julie, Kimi and Hilo came out of one of the tunnels carrying Brett and Brenda, and leading some of the zombies, he put his foot on Pauahi’s chest and cried out to the Jungle, the crowd and the temple.

His friends and allies loudly cheered and chanted along with him in his celebratory haka.

But Pauahi was not done. He stood back up and ran out of the main hall, throwing dust and dirt around to leave everyone in his tracks. Manti ordered some of his men to chase Pauahi, but that was not the focus. Instead, he turned back around to see Kai and Julie hugging amidst the chanting and cheering of the allied peoples.

They had won, and so had Kaitan the Awesome.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

End chapter


	13. Chapter 13

Pauahi had managed to give the Teo warriors the slip not too long ago. But he had to run around zig-zags, circles and all over the place in order to really do so, and in such a way that they could not track him.

But they were frustratingly persistent, not surprising for Manti’s elite _Koa_ warriors. He heard them staying close, rustling leaves and snapping sticks. Curse them!

He could hear them shouting for him to stop, even as he tried throwing some dirt, leaves and branches about to keep them off his trail. A lot of good that did him. And he knew it. Panic wasn’t going to help him, but his adrenaline was coursing through his arteries at a faster pace than he knew (considering he probably doesn’t know what adrenaline is, that’s saying something) keeping him going, and making him worry too much about what they were going to do to him when they caught him.

He could probably kiss his skin good-bye, or served up to the Night Marchers.

But even as his heart beat, and breathed at a faster-than-healthy pace, he lost a lot of focus, and it bit him hard when he tripped on a root that had inexplicably jutted out from the dirt. He didn’t even see the ground coming, but he felt the impact with the ground and tasted the dirt in his mouth. Even more humiliating than this.

“HE’S DOWN!” Hearing this quickly brought him back to his senses and he staggered back to his feet to keep running.

But he knew deep down that they were going to get him, and he would have to face the consequences. Manti would make an example of him for trying to harm his precious _haole_ “hero” or something like that. Truth be told, killing people is the real reason why, but don’t tell that to Pauahi. He wouldn’t care.

He looked back to see them within ten feet of him. He quickened his pace, jumped over a fallen tree stump and made a tight turn to try and lose them. But they cut across the trail and lunged for him. His heart practically stopped when he saw them reaching out to grab him. This was the end, alright. He was going to lose his head.

But that would never happen.

Several figures burst out of the brush to tackle Manti’s supposedly “elite” warriors, knocking them out and left them laying on the dirt. Pauahi stopped in his tracks and bent over to collect his breath.

The figures stood around the warriors, wearing tiki masks and carrying spears. They were about to finish the job, only for someone to order them to stop. Pauahi sighed exasperatedly and glared at Tito as he entered the crime scene.

“Where were you, Tito?” he asked.

“Manti’s flunky and Kaitan got to me first,” he said. “I led them to the base, hoping they would be taken care of. I see that we, and especially you, failed.”

“We failed _ONE_ boss,” said Pauahi. “And that boss happened to be rather stupid. She blabbed her plans to Kaitan’s filthy wench!”

“You are upset,” Tito concluded. “Kaitan defeated you, did he not?”

“The white bastard took my mana!” Pauahi spat. “The rest of the island worships him like a god, yet he is still a man! I want to prove it to them! But now I have to live with this utter humiliation!”

“Worry not,” said Tito. “You will get your mana back.”

“Let me kill those warriors, right now!” Pauahi insisted.

“No,” Tito replied. “You already caused us enough trouble by provoking Kaitan. We need to find the rest of the slaves and take them back to the Boss. We do not want them chasing after us. We cannot even go back to base, as that place is crawling with Teo warriors.”

Pauahi huffed and stormed off. Tito sighed, but gestured for the tiki-wearing men to follow him.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Manti impatiently waited at the old temple. He watched most of the tribe and former prisoners leave for their respective homes, but a couple warriors lingered. They were impatient, too. While they may not have been the best of the _Koa_ here, they were more than capable of hunting a two-bit mercenary down with much ease.

“Where are they?” Hilo asked.

“You two!” Manti pointed at a pair of other warriors. “Go find those two! They may have been forced to go deeper into the jungle, so be ready.”

“Yes, sir!” the higher-ranking of the two warriors said, saluting Manti before heading out to find them.

“The palefaces want to keep the ruins intact,” said Hilo. “They say they need to gather evidence for the other palefaces’ trial.”

“Of course,” said Manti. “Their justice system is evidence-based and a suspect is considered innocent until proven guilty… we should try that.”

“No wonder the island hates you,” said Hilo. His obviously-sarcastic tone made Manti laugh.

“And they probably think I only keep Kaitan around because he’s my lap dog,” said Manti.

“Isn’t he?”

“No,” Manti replied. “But I think he may need to spend some time living as an outsider, even just for a little while.”

“He made it clear he will not go back to his homeland,” said Hilo.

“I never said I was going to force him,” said Manti. “If he declines my suggestion, so be it. I suspect he will instead spend time with the palefaced knowledge-seekers. Although, from what I have heard, you make a good team with his friends.”

“I hope you are not saying what I think you are saying,” said Hilo.

“I said no such thing,” said Manti. “By the way, find some deer and have them slaughtered. We will have a luau tonight.”

“Perfect!” Hilo called out to two more warriors, ordering them to find a deer, kill it and bring it back to the village.

Minutes later, the warriors sent out to find the _koa_ returned, helping those same warriors. They were limp and needed help standing up, but they otherwise looked fine. Perhaps they were simply tired, but Manti and Hilo could see otherwise. The _Ali’i_ turned to Hilo to make eye contact. Hilo looked at them with a concerned expression and wordlessly answered the Chief’s look with another glance. Then Manti turned away from Hilo and walked up to his warriors, who were being given some water.

“What happened?” he asked.

“We were jumped,” said one of the _koa_. “We did not see anyone coming to us, but we almost had Pauahi. He was gone when our comrades arrived.”

“Pauahi’s mercenary allies,” said Hilo. “Who are they working for now?”

“Was that rhetorical?” Manti asked.

“Of course,” said Hilo. “I doubt we will get answers from them.”

“Take them back to the village,” said Manti. “They need to be healed.”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

The Jungle Trio had ditched their animal skin garments for traditional Greystokian (kinda like Hawaiian) garments. The main reason why will be revealed later, but for now we can divulge the other reasons. Yes, they thought they looked silly in garments more suited for Africa, but as we’ve established in previous installments, they’re proud of them. It’s just that it was pretty obvious, just from the way Kaitan walked back into the village, with a proud expression, that he wanted to reiterate his connection to the tribe. Plus, those jungle garments smelled kinda weird by now.

They stayed in the _hale noho_ they reserved for them, a bit at the northern edge of the village. That’s also around the same place where Brett and Brenda were locked up in wooden cages before they were to be taken back to Manitoba by Canadian Naval forces.

Clad in a tapa version of his usual loincloth and leaning against the doorframe, Kai watched Julie, whose top had somehow been turned into a bikini top, yelling at Brett and Brenda, possibly for kidnapping her. Kimi had also gotten in on the action. But this also made him realize something. So he pushed himself off of the doorframe and walked over to the wooden cage holding Aunt Brenda. Julie stopped, turned away and took Kimi by the arm so they could leave Kai with Aunt Brenda.

Once they were alone, Kai could only stare at her with a seemingly-blank expression. But that was because he had a lot of other emotions swirling underneath.

“Well?” Brenda asked. “What’s going to happen?”

“You’ll face our law—Teo law—first,” he said.

“ _Our_ law?” she asked. “You’re staying, aren’t you?”

“I guess so,” he replied.

“Who do you think you are?” she asked.

“I’m Kyle Anderson of Winnipeg, known to the Teo and Greystoke Island as Kaitan the Hero of the Jungle?” he replied.

“Very funny,” she replied. “Are you staying for Julie’s selfish reasons and because you don’t know anyone else in Winnipeg?”

“That’s part of it,” he replied. “I have my own reasons.”

“What are they?”

“Well, I mean, I never said I’m never going back to the ‘Peg,” he said, “Maybe just to visit, but… I guess it’s because I feel at home here. I kinda like it.”

“But do you belong here?” she asked.

Her question seemed to dig deep into his very being, and he hesitated for a moment. His expression shifted several times in one second, before settling on a neutral one. “I know what you’re trying to say,” he said. “Since I’ve already gone through a few manhood rituals, I’m definitely part of the tribe. As much as I hate to admit it, not everyone’s going to like me. And I have to accept it.”

“I mean, _why_ do you want to be like Tarzan?” Brenda asked. “I think it’s fairly clear, just from how many people we hired, that people think otherwise.”

He turned to Julie. She jogged to get to him he whispered in her early at first and then she did the same. He threw his head back and laughed. “She thinks that it’s a good thing I have enemies!” he laughed. “I never thought of it _that_ way!”

“The _other_ reason,” said Brenda. “They can’t stand the fact that an outsider has gotten so popular. And I think they have a point. You should’ve come back with us.”

“You were planning to make me a zombie,” said Kai, “And make me the fall guy in your scheme. Julie told me.”

“Is that why you’re staying?”

“It’s not the only reason. But let them hate me. I’m just as much a part of this island as they are.”

“So naïve,” she said. “Brett was right, your White Savior complex is strong.”

“What are you trying to get at?” he asked. “I already said no.”

“WHY are you wasting time pretending to be a hero?” she asked.

“I’m not pretending to be a hero,” he said. “I am one. I just saved the island a few hours ago, after all.”

“Brenda, he’s not changing his mind, what are you doing?” Brett asked.

“What’s the point?” Brenda asked, ignoring her husband. “Come on, Kyle.”

“Brett, how did you zombify all those people?” Kai asked, ignoring Brenda.

“I studied _The Serpent and the Rainbow_ ,” he replied. “I’m talking about the book, not the Wes Craven movie. There’s a way to turn people into zombies without actually killing them, but it’s a time-consuming process.”

“I’m talking here, Brett!” Brenda interrupted. “Why are you trying to live like a racist, colonialist symbol, Kyle?”

“Says the woman who wanted to enslave the island’s entire population for her corporate greed!” Julie snapped. “Do you even hear yourself speak? And what’s the point? You know Kai already said he’s staying—a choice of his own free will, by the way—are you trying to start shit?”

“What have the Teo ever done for you, Kyle?” Brenda asked.

“They gave me a home!” Kyle replied. “They took me in like a son, they gave me all the support I needed, they taught me how to survive, they taught me to fight like them, I got stronger, both physically and mentally, and I was adopted! They did more for me than you ever will! I had no idea how I was going to pay them back, but I was going to do it any way I could, especially if it meant saving people!”

“I think you answered her question,” said Julie.

“What question?” Kai asked.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Julie muttered under her breath.

“I don’t get it, what are you—oh Gods, I’m so stupid.”

“You figured it out, didn’t you?” Julie asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “You think it’s a good reason?”

“Personally, I think so,” said Julie. “I mean, if you said you were doing it for yourself, that’d still be okay, and I’m sure that is _a_ reason. But it doesn’t have to be the only reason.”

“Thanks,” he replied.

“Great,” Brenda muttered to herself. “There’s no changing your mind, is there?”

“At one point, there was a chance,” he said. “But you blew it. And now you’ll have to answer to the feds.”

Brenda had no answer. “And thanks to you, I feel like I can be a better hero than I was. I can live up to the legacy of native heroes like Kili, Moana and Lilo. Thanks, Aunt Brenda.”

“You’re welcome,” she said begrudgingly.

Julie proudly looked up at her boyfriend and he returned her smile. Wrapping his arm around her shoulder, he led her away from his Aunt, who screamed something about this not being Kai’s last fight, nor that he really knew what happened. But Julie replied by flipping the woman off.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

The Teo held a village-only luau to celebrate their, and Kai’s victory earlier in the day. The deer they killed and brought to the party smelled positively delicious. The sides were made of taro, pineapple, coconut, berries, fish and other assortments of fruits and veggies to fill anyone up, unless they wanted to keep going. It was recommended to eat in small servings so as not to fill your stomach until the main course was ready.

The whole village was there, even Hana, the grouchy old lady who wasn’t happy with the particular turn of events that resulted in her being captured, as it meant Manti was now much more popular than she wanted him to be. The partygoers had stood and cheered for him the moment he arrived at the party, a moment that only embarrassed her further.

But the Trio of the hour was not there, and neither was their fourth member, Hilo. They were still at their hut, discussing some of the findings from the day. The inability to catch Pauahi was an obvious concern, and Kai showed that concern by staring at Hilo all throughout his recap of what they knew. Julie paid attention too, but Kimi didn’t. She was looking all over the walls, probably remarking something about it to herself.

“Then we lost Pauahi’s trail,” said Hilo. “We did find tracks going off towards the northeast, but they disappeared. It’s possible he went up into the trees. Unfortunately, as you probably know, that only makes things more difficult.”

“I’ll bet,” Kai said to himself. “What about the former slaves?”

“They are already returning to their villages,” said Hilo. “How did he do it, again?”

“Brett said he studied an anthropology book,” Julie replied. “I haven’t been able to get him to fess up on what he used yet. We’ll get him to talk before the Canadian Navy picks him up.”

“Of course,” said Hilo. “As for Pauahi, Manti and I are wondering how we can keep looking for him. I already mentioned the other villages of our confederation to him, and it would only make sense to inform them about it.”

“Do you need a picture of him?” Julie asked.

“It could help,” he replied. “But he defeated two of Manti’s best _Koa_.”

“Doesn’t reflect well on their reputation,” said Julie.

“And we’re gonna hear about it for months,” Kai quipped. “They’re gonna blame me, aren’t they?”

“They always blame the white man,” Hilo chuckled.

“Well, they kind of have a point,” Julie admitted.

“But the rest of the tribe will have another question,” said Hilo. “Will you be staying, Kaitan?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “But my reasons are my own.”

“Well, then I shall have to let my mother know it is not because of her tapa bread,” Hilo sighed, crossing his arms. “She is really proud of that, you know.”

“Sorry,” Kai laughed. “For now, I can’t imagine a reason to go back to my homeland. I may go back to visit, but this place is home.”

“Home is meant to be left,” said Julie.

“But it’s also where the heart is,” he replied. “To be honest, this place will always be home. But like I said, in the meantime, I’ll stay here.”

Hilo was momentarily quiet before breaking out into a full-body, Ghibli-esque laugh that made Kai and Julie glance at each other in bewildered confusion. “Manti wanted to ask if you wanted to stay with the knowledge-seekers!” he laughed. “He thinks you should take a break from hero-ing.”

“Well, I never said I wanted to isolate myself from everyone,” said Kai.

“And I need to get back to researching,” said Julie.

“Yes, but there is a reason he made these offers; he thinks you spend way too much time alone, and are getting a little… out of touch. He wants you to live closer to the village.”

“He’s talking about the treehouse, isn’t he?” Kai asked.

“Must be,” she replied. “But I like that treehouse! We’re jungle people, we should live close to nature!”

“There _is_ a middle ground, but with two choices,” said Hilo. “The first choice is you could live in the old, middle-of-the-jungle village, with a direct path to the new village cut into the forest, or living on the edge of this village right next to jungle.”

“That sounds tempting,” said Kai. “Even if it sounds like we’re still kind of out of touch.”

“But moving’s going to be the hard part,” said Julie.

“Well, to be fair, I told him it would be best to give you time to think,” said Hilo. “It is a difficult decision, after all.”

“Thanks, Hilo,” said Kai. “By the way, why don’t you start adventuring with us more? You’re a great team member!”

“WHAT!?”

“Come on Hilo, you know he’s right!” Julie laughed. “You know you wanna!”

“Leave that out for the time being!” Hilo insisted. “… Actually, it sounds tempting.”

“I knew you’d see it our way,” said Julie.

“Is that why you are late to your own party, Kaitan?”

The quartet gasped in unison upon sight of Manti standing above them, with an expression just as crossed as his arms.

“My apologies!” Hilo quickly prostrated himself.

“Get up,” Manti sighed in annoyance. “You three; get moving. NOW—why are you wearing that?”

“Our jungle stuff smells like shit,” said Julie. “We just washed it.”

“Besides; I kinda wanted to wear my _malo_ for a time,” said Kai.

“That is all well and good,” said Manti. “But those are your signature, even if no one understands.”

“Well, now that Hilo told you about your offer, we kinda want to live with the tribe a little more,” said Kaitan.

“Even better!” said Manti. “Why?”

“Because after everything the tribe’s done for me, I’m repaying them by being a hero and by living with them,” said Kai.

“What about me!?” Kimi interrupted.

“What about you!?” Julie replied. “You’re not going anywhere, don’t worry!”

“If I may continue, I’m not going anywhere for now,” said Kai. “This place is my home. It’s where my heart is. And even if I do go back to my homeland, it can’t replace this as the place where I found who I am. And I’m proud to be of Greystoke and the jungle.”

A little surprised by Kai’s sudden outburst, Manti smiled anyway, but pointed out the door to the luau that was getting underway. Without a word, the quartet of young heroes bolted out the door. But Manti stopped Kai at the door.

“I just want you to know that I am proud of you,” he said. “You have grown into quite the hero. And a fine young man. And you saved the island. I know for certain that even if your enemies come back for you, you will defeat them and protect our home. And I would say you are indeed a great hero and young man, Kaitan the Awesome.”

“You mean my adventure isn’t over?” Kai asked.

“Life is an adventure,” Manti admitted. “Now get going. The tribe will be happy to know you have accepted the island as your home.”

“Thanks, Manti.” He said before jogging off to join the party. He was home.

Greystoke Island and its jungle were Kaitan’s home.


End file.
